


Ready or Not

by IhaveAbadfeelingAboutThis



Series: Pray Boldly [4]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Chess as a Euphemism, Established Relationship, Getting Back Together, Getting Together, M/M, Smut, Yes all three in the same fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:34:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 24,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22808686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IhaveAbadfeelingAboutThis/pseuds/IhaveAbadfeelingAboutThis
Summary: "Albus had told Theseus that he wanted the three of them to live together, but that had been hypothetical... He realized now that, even when he had been feeling most forgiving, even when he had suggested bringing Gellert into their marriage, he had been relying on Theseus to say no – and Theseus had unexpectedly said maybe. And now – now it seemed he might even be saying yes."
Relationships: Albus Dumbledore/Gellert Grindelwald, Albus Dumbledore/Theseus Scamander, Gellert Grindelwald/Theseus Scamander
Series: Pray Boldly [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1629496
Comments: 15
Kudos: 17





	1. Albus

**Author's Note:**

> This started off as a one shot, but it was clear that: 1/ folks wanted the story to continue, and 2/ it was entirely too long for a one shot -   
> So - what was once the one shot is now chapters 1 and 2, and there are going to be 2 additional chapters - all taking place over a roughly 10 day period.
> 
> Most of the fics in this series can stand alone - but this one will make far more sense if you read the prior one (Two Truths and a Lie) first.
> 
> Oh, and - Gellert's eyes? Not heterochromatic in this fic.  
> Just - flagging that, because it will seem off to some folks.  
> I could write a book on my reasoning, but...
> 
> If you are someone who likes to picture Gellert as having the eyes you've seen in the FB movies, then - skip over my eye color designation and imagine it the way you like. Or just tell yourself that this is pretty heavily AU as it is. What's one more thing?

**October 1913**

**Chapter One  
Albus**

**Thursday**  
“Owl for you, Theseus,” Albus called. There was no answer.  
‘Why would there be?’ Albus complained under his breath. ‘Who wouldn’t still be in bed at 8?’  
At least this way he would get to see Theseus before he left for Hogwarts. Usually Theseus tried to be awake in time to see Albus off, but he had had a late night last night – apparently what was meant to be an easy arrest had turned into an ambush… or something. Theseus had told him very little, as usual. It had taken Albus time to make his peace with it, but Theseus needed a lot of space when it came to his job, and he had finally learned to give it to him.

Upstairs, Albus sat on the edge of the bed. He laid his hand on Theseus’ shoulder.  
“Good morning, Thee.”  
“Albus? What time is it?”  
“Eight, Love.”  
Theseus scrambled to sit up.  
“Oh, gods. I’m so sorry, Albus. I almost missed you!”  
“That’s alright. I know you were out late. And they probably gave you the morning off as a result, so –“

“If only,” Theseus said, bitterly. “No, I’m due to report to the Head Auror in 45 minutes. It’s good you woke me. I’m not sure that I set an alarm.”  
“I’m – I wish I were here just to get a kiss before I go, but this came for you.”  
Albus handed Theseus the letter.  
“Albus, it’s –“  
“Unmarked, I know. But there’s nothing malicious about it.”  
Theseus thoughtfully tapped the still sealed letter against the pillow, then tossed it onto the bedside table.  
“Come here.”

That was different. Usually Theseus was in a hurry to read his letters.  
Albus crawled onto the bed, and knelt next to Theseus. Theseus grabbed Albus and pulled him towards him.  
“Closer, Arse. I haven’t seen you since Tuesday after dinner. What’s that? 36 hours? I miss you. Get over here properly.”  
Albus straddled Theseus and kissed him.  
“Better?”  
“So much better,” Theseus replied. He wrapped his arms tightly around Albus, buried his nose in Albus’ neck and inhaled.

“I hate being separated from you.”  
Albus hated being separated from Theseus, too, but at least there was this – the way it felt to be held by him when they were together.

“I love you, Albus, so much.”  
“I love you, too – but – shouldn’t you be reading your letter?”  
“Yes… but stay?”

This was different too. Given the nature of his work, the majority of the mail Theseus received was confidential. As a result, he only ever opened his mail when he was alone.

“You really did miss me.”  
“I more than missed you. I’m positively starved for you.”  
Theseus pulled Albus’ head down and began kissing him. Albus was surprised by the intensity of the kiss – he could feel Theseus’ magic crackling around them, and Albus’ own magic answered.

Theseus pulled back and smiled. “I love you. And I don’t want to spend a minute apart from you that I don’t have to.”  
“Yes, ok, I’ll stay then. But – it seems it would be better if I sat in the chair over there? I want to at least give you a little privacy while you read.”

“You can lie with your head in my lap. And take off your glasses. Then I imagine you wouldn’t be able to see anything…”  
Albus smiled and kissed Theseus’ forehead.  
“Your wish is my command. Unless you wish for me to stay longer than 15 minutes, because I do have a class to teach.”

“Of course, Love, just –“ Theseus sighed. “I don’t know what is in this letter, but I do know that my letters rarely carry good news. So –“  
Albus kissed Theseus gently, then moved so that he was laying alongside Theseus’ legs, his head on his lap.

Theseus picked up the letter, took a deep breath, and opened it. He tensed right away.

“Shit. Fuck.”  
“That bad?”  
“No – and yes. I – have to pack.”  
Albus sat up.

“Pack? You’re leaving? Overnight?”  
“I – it’s an informant of mine. He’s in trouble. I don’t know what he is going to decide to do. If I can bring him in, get him to a safe house, then I will. But he might decide to bolt, and if he does – gods, he had better not bolt. His luck cannot last forever.”  
Theseus looked genuinely upset. Almost grieving, as if he were anticipating losing this person.

“He means something to you.”  
“Everyone means something.”  
“You know what I mean.”  
“He’s scared and he doesn’t have anyone.”  
It still wasn’t an answer, but Albus could drop it if Theseus needed not to talk about it.

“Albus, you - you know I love you, right? No matter what?“  
No matter what?  
“You don’t think you’re coming back.”  
“What?! Albus, no. I will always come back to you. Always.”  
“You might say that –“

“I mean it. I will be back by the day after tomorrow at the very latest.”  
“You can’t promise that, Thee. Your job… you – this could be dangerous. This man – if he is as desperate as he sounds, then he could hurt you, and – the DMLE doesn’t even know about him, do they?”  
“Not – yet. After today, they will. Probably.”

“Can’t you take someone with you?”  
“I can’t, Albus. But I promise you, I will be perfectly safe. He wouldn’t hurt me.”

Oh.

“ _You_ mean something to _him_ , then.”  
Theseus sighed. “I think so.”  
“I see,” said Albus, and he got off the bed and walked to the other side of the room.

“Love, no. It’s not like that.”  
Theseus got out of bed and gathered Albus in his arms.  
“Albus. Look at me, darling.”  
Albus met Theseus’ eyes with difficulty.

“No one is more important to me than you are. I will _never_ do anything to hurt you. Not on purpose. And if I ever hurt you by accident, I will do absolutely everything I can to make things right. Ok?”  
Albus nodded.  
“Do you believe me?”

Albus was not, in fact, sure that he believed Theseus. If Theseus actually felt that way about him, then he would be the first person who ever had. But now was not the time for that discussion, so he nodded his head.

Theseus laid one hand on Albus’ cheek and kissed him tenderly.  
“I’m yours, Albus Dumbledore. I’m yours when we are away from one another just as I am when I am alone with you in this room. I love you.”

Theseus kissed Albus one last time before pulling away.  
“I think I need to put on some clothes now, and you need to go to school. If I’m not back by 8pm tonight, I’ll send you a patronus.”

Theseus accio’d his overnight bag, and clothes began floating from the wardrobe and packing themselves. When Albus was just outside the bedroom door he turned around to look at his strong, handsome husband. His heart broke a little, watching him get ready to leave. He closed his eyes. Saturday. Saturday _at the latest._ He could wait. He had plenty of work he could keep himself distracted with in the meantime.

///

 **Saturday**  
Albus was in the study when he heard the front door open. He had been writing letters to keep himself from thinking about the fact that it had been 51 hours since he had last seen Theseus. (Yes, he was counting. No, he was not ashamed to admit it.)

“Albus?”  
Albus made himself sit still in his study. He would not go running out into the living room. He would not look needy and desperate. He would not –  
“There you are… Love? What’s wrong?“  
Theseus rushed to where Albus was sitting at his desk and dragged him up out of his chair.  
“You really thought I wasn’t coming back this time.”  
Albus’ forehead dropped onto Theseus’ shoulder, but he didn’t make a sound.

“Albus, I will always come back for you. I am yours and you are mine. Remember? I promised you.”  
Yes, Gellert had promised too. His father had promised…

Theseus’ fingers began gently teasing Albus’ hair out of its braid. Theseus knew how to be gentle, how to take care of him. And, Albus reminded himself, Theseus knew how to stay.

After having combed Albus’ hair smooth with his fingers, Theseus held Albus tight, and rubbed his back. Albus took a ragged breath, and then another…  
“I love you,” Theseus murmured, and began dropping slow soft kisses on Albus’ neck.  
“I will never reach the end of all there is to know about you, to love about you.”  
Theseus kissed him, but not as deeply or as fiercely as Albus was needing him to do. As he pulled away, Albus leaned forward, chasing Theseus’ mouth, needing more. Theseus laid a finger on Albus’ lips, as if quieting him.

“I want you, too, but I don’t want you to pass out on me. Have you eaten today, Love?”  
“Of course, I have!” Albus answered indignantly. He had had a slice of cake for breakfast, and… well, he hadn’t had time for lunch yet, after all it was only – 2:30? Oh, dear. That was much later than he had thought. Well, writing had served its purpose then, if he had lost that much time… However, that meant that, in spite of his heated denial, he had eaten only a single slice of cake in the past 16 hours or so.

The realization must have shown on his face, because Theseus released him, took his hand, and led him into the kitchen. In no time, he was sitting in front of a full plate – beef roast, gravy, mash, brussels sprouts from the garden…

“Aren’t you going to have any?”  
“Some of us eat lunch before two, darling.”  
The words sounded almost like a scolding, but the tone of voice was fond.

Albus had missed everything about Theseus – even things he hadn’t known he was missing, like the way Theseus’ voice made everything he said to Albus sound like it meant ‘I love you,’ even more than it meant whatever the words themselves were saying.  
How was it possible to miss someone so much when they had been gone not quite two days?  
‘It was because it wasn’t just two days,’ he reminded himself. ‘It was nearly four days, save only that half an hour on Thursday morning.’

In spite of his words, Theseus sat down with a small plate of brussels sprouts. Albus raised an eyebrow.  
“I thought you had already eaten.”  
Theseus waved a hand dismissively. “I did – more than two hours ago. But I could use a snack.”  
He speared a sprout, and held it up on his fork, admiring it. “They are so good like this, roasted just moments after they’ve been harvested.”  
Albus supposed. He was more fond of carrots and parsnips himself, if forced to eat winter vegetables. Brussels sprouts were acceptable – but only when Theseus made them, and only when he roasted them exactly this way.

“How was your meeting?” Albus asked. “With your informant? Did he run?”  
“He did not,” Theseus said. “He is safe for now. His future is still a little uncertain, but – hopeful, I’d say.”  
Albus nodded and opened his mouth to say more.

Theseus interrupted. “We can catch up more in the living room after you have finished eating. I want to be sure that we have taken care of you first. Did you sleep last night?”  
Albus nodded, his mouth full. He had slept for four hours, which was not bad for when Theseus was out of the house.

Theseus finished his sprouts and sent his plate over to the counter.  
“I’ll meet you in the living room?”  
He didn’t wait for an answer before walking through the kitchen door.

///

When Albus arrived in the living room, Theseus was there, sitting in the armless wooden chair that he usually only sat in when he was playing cello. But this time, he was sitting in the chair backwards, legs straddling the back of the chair, arms folded, resting on top.  
‘What about this conversation makes him think he needs a shield?’ Albus wondered.  
Every soft organ Theseus had, save his brain, was hidden behind the back of that chair, or would have been, if it had not been a primitive collection of wooden slats. Did it make him feel safer? Did Theseus even notice what his posture implied?  
Probably. Theseus was extraordinarily intentional. He was probably sitting that way as a signal to Albus, more than because he had to for himself.

“Ok, I’ve waited long enough.”  
“The informant – you know him. And I need you to come along with me to see him. I have a portkey…”

“Why do you need me – Theseus – who is it?”  
“I’d rather not say until we get to the safe house.”  
“You think I won’t go – “  
Why wouldn’t he go?

No.

It couldn’t be… but that was the only possible answer. He never would have thought – Theseus _went behind his back._ And why? Why would he do that for Gellert? And why would Gellert reach out to Theseus? To Theseus _instead of to Albus?_

“It’s Gellert. Gellert is your ‘informant.’”  
“Don’t say ‘informant’ like that, Albus – it was the truth. The information he has given me over the past day and a half… It’s extraordinary.”  
He continued, muttering almost too softly for Albus to hear. “Extraordinarily frightening. It’s lucky we weren’t too late.”

“He called _you_. Why did he call _you?_ ”  
Theseus paused.  
“I – that’s for him to say. His story to tell. I’m not going to speak for him – you need to speak to him yourself.”

Albus stood and began pacing.  
“You were with him two nights.”

Theseus didn’t answer, so Albus stopped, locked his eyes on Theseus’. He had not used legilimency on Theseus – at least, never without Theseus giving his permission first. But looking deeply in his eyes like this – Albus hoped that Theseus understood that he was making a threat, and he was weighing the risk of following through.

Given that Theseus was meeting his eyes without wavering, his expression completely blank, Albus could tell that he understood perfectly well. But still Theseus did not speak, as if defying Albus – as if challenging him to break this unspoken rule of their marriage.

Albus broke eye contact and nodded slowly.  
“Did you sleep with him, Theseus?”  
“I did not have sex with him, Albus. I did hold him while he pretended to sleep, until he really did fall asleep, and I kept holding him until morning. Only in that sense did I sleep with him.”

Albus could picture it so easily, Theseus wrapped around Gellert. It made his heart ache. Was there – what was happening between them? Was there any room for him in that – relationship?

“Theseus, you and – you and Gellert –“  
“He needed comfort, Albus, and I was there to give it to him. He has burned all of his bridges. He did it for himself, but also for you – and he never would have thought to do it without our intervention.”  
“Your intervention.”  
“ _Our_ intervention, Albus. I was content to simply have him exonerated – for him not to have a false charge of murder hanging over his head. The fact that I met him at all –“  
“You don’t need to remind me, Theseus. I know.”

“Now, you don’t have to take him back –“  
“Take him back?!”  
“That’s what is happening here, isn’t it? Gellert has come here to Britain, to us, because I led him to believe that we would welcome him. Because you led me to believe that you would welcome him. We won’t make any hasty decisions. You can certainly decide that having him live with us will not work. Any of the three of us can. But you need to know that he can’t go back to where he was, what he was.  
“You have power over what happens next, for all of us, but so help me, for the sake of retaining my positive regard, you had better at least speak to him. He has sacrificed a lot to come to Britain, to make this gesture towards reconciliation. More than we have sacrificed in bringing him here.”

Gellert.  
Theseus wanted Albus to speak to Gellert. He was essentially threatening him, demanding that he speak to Gellert –

“You’ve already chosen sides.”

“I am _always_ on your side, Albus. You are my husband. You are my past, my present, and my future. I love you more than my own life. But it is also true that I am on the side of all three of us having our say, of all three of us being listened to. For your sake and mine – not to mention for Gellert’s sake. We need to know that we have considered the idea – _your_ idea, if I may remind you. What we choose after that – how far we are willing to change our daily lives – I don’t have a horse in that race.”  
Albus didn’t believe that at all. Theseus already knew what he wanted. That much was clear by him having gone to Gellert when he called. _Without telling Albus._

“You don’t?” If anyone were to suggest that Albus' voice sounded vaguely accusatory, he would have replied that any vagueness was an undeserved mercy.  
“Well – fine, I have a _hope_. But ultimately, I am in favor of us acting on whatever makes the most sense to us _after_ we have had the conversation, and I cannot predict how that conversation will go.”

Albus sighed. It looked like he didn’t have a choice. He was going to see Gellert.

It had been five months since Theseus had been to see Gellert in Godric’s Hollow. All that Theseus had told him about that meeting was that Gellert was difficult, but fun to drink with, that they had talked for not quite three hours, and that he thought that the meeting had gone well, overall.

‘Fun to drink with’ was one of the highest honours Theseus could bestow upon a person. It meant that person had few if any flaws of note. It meant they were funny, brilliant, not completely predictable.  
‘It went well,’ meant, in Albus’ imagination, ‘Gellert is interested in continuing the conversation,’ so as each week passed with no word… It was like a fresh wound, another broken promise. Albus wasn’t sure how much he trusted Gellert. He wasn’t sure how much he trusted himself to be civil, to give Gellert this ‘chance’ that Theseus seemed to be insisting on.

Or, at least, he couldn’t do it alone.  
“Will you come with me?”  
“I will accompany you to the safe house, and reintroduce the two of you, but then – Albus, I have to leave you alone with him. You have a history with him that I don’t have – injuries from him that have not healed. You need to speak with him. You need to touch him. You need to listen to him.”

“Touch him.”  
As if Theseus had not already asked far too much of him.  
“Just - just put your hand on his shoulder, Albus, if you can’t do anything else. Hold his hand. Show him you think that he is touchable.”  
“And if I don’t? If I can’t?”  
“Then don’t. Just – if you at all feel that you might be able to forgive him, to reconcile in any way – don’t hold back from showing him.”

Albus had told Theseus that he wanted the three of them to live together, but that had been… hypothetical. Really, he had wanted to see Gellert for an hour or two in some public place, in order to reassure himself that the time the two of them had ‘lost’ after Gellert had left had not been lost at all – that the two of them had never been all that well-suited, that Albus had been imagining it all somehow. Even better would have been Theseus deciding, after meeting Gellert, that it would be better for Albus not to see him at all.

But that way was not open to him. Instead, his husband, who he wanted to trust, was planning to leave the two of them alone together in a private place for some indeterminate amount of time. And Gellert was – prepared to move in? It was too much, too fast.  
Albus realized now that, even when he had been feeling most forgiving, even when he had suggested bringing Gellert into their marriage, he had been relying on Theseus to say no – and Theseus had unexpectedly said maybe. And now – now it seemed he was even saying yes.

“Fine. Yes. I’ll go. May I at least finish writing my letter to the editor of _Herbology for Potions Masters Quarterly_? I was busy working before you arrived, and I might like to tie things up before you take me away from my home and then leave me _again_ , this time in an unknown place with an untrustworthy individual.”  
“Don’t be petulant, Albus.”

“I missed you, Theseus. And I am not at all looking forward to spending time with Gellert instead of with you.”  
“Albus, you will find, when you see him, that you want to talk with him.”  
“I doubt it.”  
“If I am wrong, I will take a week off of work, and we can go to the Canaries, as a consolation.”

“Four weeks, and Mexico.”  
“Not Mexico. The Muggles are in the middle of a revolution.”  
“How do you know these things?”  
“It is my job to know these things. I am going to assume that your request for 4 weeks was to allow us time to get there and back, so – I will take two weeks, and we can go almost anywhere in Europe or North Africa. You pick, and I’ll let you know if it is safe.”

“Ephesus.”  
Theseus laughed. “Ephesus is neither in Africa nor Europe – are you testing how strict I will be with the limits I set? Will you be asking me for two and a half weeks?”  
“Certainly not!”  
Theseus raised an eyebrow.  
“It is true that I will take as many weeks as I can convince you to give me. And I am aware that Ephesus is… well, it is on the Mediterranean anyway…”

“Yes, it is. We can go to Ephesus - that part of the world is a bit unstable at the moment, but the worst of it has not come to Ephesus - yet. It might be best to take advantage while there is still time. So, tell me my Love, why Ephesus?”

“There was a library there – many of the scrolls and codices were saved in the third century in advance of a fire, because the head librarian had been warned by a seer. It is rumoured that they are still held by the magical community there, and that they have many texts that can be found nowhere else, including a treatise by Aristoxenus on the magical properties of music, several botanical texts by Theophrastus, and Homer’s _Margites_. They also have a treatise on the nature of time by an unnamed Persian astronomer, and…”

Theseus stood, knocking over the chair, and tackled Albus onto the sofa.  
“A romantic trip to study lost books?” he asked, hunger in his eyes. “I love you, Albus Dumbledore.”  
He kissed Albus aggressively, as if he were planning to tear Albus to pieces with his mouth. Instinctively, Albus’ arms reached up to embrace Theseus, and he bucked up against him.  
Theseus released his mouth only long enough to laugh. Then he began kissing him again and grinding against him. Albus groaned.  
“Can we – Theseus? Gods! You feel – Yes! It’s been days – “  
Albus unbuttoned the top button of Theseus’ pants. “Please?”

Theseus answered by disappearing Albus’ trousers and unbuttoning his own trousers just enough for his cock to spring free.  
Albus felt himself being stretched slowly by a charm, while Theseus pumped Albus’ cock with one hand, and spread lube over his own cock with the other. Next, his fingers were generously applying lube to Albus, and –

“Can’t wait, Albus – please – need you!”  
“Take me. Yours – I’m all yours Theseus.”

Instead of working himself in slowly as he usually did, Theseus plunged into Albus all at once, and Albus screamed.  
Theseus stilled and looked at him, concerned.  
“Albus –“  
“I’m ok – that was a good scream. Just – please don’t stop.”  
“Oh, thank all the gods,” Theseus breathed, and he began plowing into Albus, as if he had been thinking of nothing else during all the time they were apart.  
Merlin, his intensity. His attentiveness.

“I love you, Thee. So much. Love you. Love you, always. Please! Gods!”  
Theseus’ eyes met Albus’, and he slowed. “I love you, Albus. I am always going to want you – “  
He drove into him more forcefully, and spoke three words, punctuating each word with a thrust: “Just – Like – This”

Albus grabbed hold of Theseus’ tie and pulled him down to kiss him.  
With his other hand he grabbed Theseus arse, encouraging him to go even deeper, as deep as he could.  
Theseus came with a shout. He pulled out, and lay on Albus for a moment.  
Then he slowly pushed himself up.

“I’m so sorry Albus – I – I hadn’t come since Tuesday afternoon. And now you haven’t gotten to come at all yet.”  
Theseus pulled Albus up, so that he was sitting on the edge of the sofa, and then he stuffed a couple of pillows behind his back.  
Theseus knelt on the floor in front of him, sitting back on his heels. He licked Albus’ cock and sighed, “Perfect – you are so perfect.” Then he took Albus into his mouth.

Theseus was incredible at this – his lips tight but soft around him, his mouth so hot and wet, his tongue caressing Albus as Theseus moved his lips up and down Albus’ shaft, again and again.  
Theseus dragged his nails lightly along Albus’ thighs, and as he pulled back the next time, the suction was so strong that Albus couldn’t think of anything but –  
“Yes! Like that!”  
Soon Albus was spilling come into Theseus’ mouth.  
Theseus smiled up at him and winked as he swallowed.

Albus laid his head back… and then he remembered.  
“I don’t suppose we have some time to just hold each other now? Before we go?”  
“Hmm – I think we would do better to spend our time washing one another in the shower.”  
That was - an acceptable substitute.

Theseus stood and reached out a hand to Albus.  
Once Albus was standing in front of him, Theseus vanished the clothes off of both of them and traced Albus’ shoulders and arms and chest with both his eyes and his fingers.  
“You are beautiful. Perfect. Exactly what I want and need, now and forever. I love you so much, and I know that I haven’t been making enough time for you. No matter how things go with Gellert, I will take you to Ephesus. I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This series has its own [playlist on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7myX2thhFHmZLvHPipbUsP?si=Yi1DOaRURDKNqxda3x0qcQ)


	2. Albus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was once upon a time half of chapter one, FWIW

**Chapter Two  
Albus  
**

****

****

**Saturday, continued**  
In the back garden, Theseus held out a tin of Albus’ favourite biscuits. Albus looked from them to Theseus.  
“Portkey,” Theseus responded to Albus’ unspoken question. “But also comfort eating for you upon arrival.”  
Albus laughed and took Theseus’ hand. “I love you.”  
“I know,” said Theseus. “I love you, too.”  
Albus laid his hand on the biscuit tin, and Theseus uttered the word, “loquacious,” and they were whisked away.

Albus started laughing almost right away. “Loquacious?”  
“Well, it’s not something someone is likely to happen to say while holding a biscuit tin, is it?”  
Theseus met Albus’ eyes, and his lips curled up into a smile.  
Albus started laughing again, and Theseus joined him.

When Albus had regained control, he asked, “Why are we on a boat, Theseus? I’m guessing we are not simply drifting in the sea… Fidelius, then?”  
“Yes,” Theseus answered, handing him a piece of paper.  
‘Hippogriff’s Rest is located on the private Scamander family Island of Gaotha, an hour’s sail due north of Giant’s Causeway.’  
The island appeared, revealing that the boat was moored in a protected cove. There were stairs cut into the stone cliff rising above them. Theseus took the slip of paper in Albus’ hand and cast an Incendio.

To hide an entire island under Fidelius… that was powerful magic. The island was small, true, but nonetheless. And there was also the matter of -  
“So - the boat?” Albus asked.  
“Oh, well, we have to land somewhere. There’s a Muggle repelling charm on the area, and a disillusionment spell on the boat, and we are well away from the shipping lanes. The water is relatively shallow here.”

Then he took Albus’ hand and led him up the stairs.  
At the top of the stairs, Albus spotted a small cottage some distance away.  
He opened his mouth to ask –  
“Don’t even think about it, Albus. It is not that far. And anyway, the entire island is warded against apparition.”  
After they had walked about 20 feet, Theseus thought to add, “And I would appreciate it if you don’t take that as a challenge.”

The remoteness of this place was… daunting.  
“Theseus – how long do you mean to leave me here? And is there any way for me to leave without you returning for me?”  
Theseus sighed, and admitted, “The soonest you may leave without me is six o’clock tomorrow morning. There is a portkey in the boat that will be latent until that time, but it may be used at any point thereafter – a copy of _The Tales of Beedle the Bard_. Activating phrase is, ‘I give up.’”

That was just cruel.  
Albus set his jaw and stopped walking. It must have taken some time for Theseus to notice, because Albus had had time enough for his sadness to gain the upper hand over his anger before hearing Theseus’ footsteps behind him.

“Albus. Love –“  
Albus turned away.  
“Don’t, Theseus.”

Theseus sighed.  
“I know that hurt, but now you know how I feel about you deciding to leave – _without me_. But you shouldn’t have to leave without me. I will be available to you at all times. You and Gellert are in the guest cottage. The family cottage will be just out of sight of where you are staying. I am leaving you and Gellert alone, but I am also making it possible for you to come to me, if things become too difficult. When we get closer, I’ll point out to you where it is that I am staying.”

“You should have said that first,” Albus said, his back still to Theseus. “Instead, you let me think that my only way off of the island was by caving to emotional manipulation.”  
“No, I should not have said that first. I wanted you to have a taste of how difficult this might be for you – of the sorts of emotions that this time with Gellert might trigger. Now you have had your reminder.”  
That was a little condescending, but… at least Theseus wasn’t abandoning him to Gellert. He turned around and looked at Theseus, and gave him a short nod.  
They began walking together towards the cottage.

///

The guest cottage at Hippogriff’s Rest was a well-kept little house, white-washed stone with a newly thatched roof, mullioned windows, a boot scraper in front of the freshly painted front door. Albus braced himself as Theseus opened the door and led him into the front door and through a hallway into the front parlour.  
But when he entered, Gellert was not there. Typical. Albus cut his eyes over to Theseus, an annoyed look on his face.

“Seriously, Albus? You expect he should have confined himself to this room during the past three hours? You stay here - I’ll go get him.”  
Albus heard Theseus make his way through the tiny house, then climb up the stairs.

Soon he could hear Theseus’ voice faintly -  
“It’s going to be fine.”  
There was a pause. Evidently, Gellert was speaking quietly enough that he couldn’t be heard.  
Theseus laughed. “Don’t be an idiot!... You are too an idiot!... I will call you whatever I like.”  
The two of them seemed to be getting on with one another then. Not that that meant anything about how things were going to go between Gellert and himself. Theseus had no history with Gellert.  
And the two of them – before now, Albus hadn’t allowed himself to think about how alike they were – but they were. It shouldn’t be a surprise that they were able to tease one another already.

There was a silence for some time, then Theseus sounding breathless -  
“That’s enough, you. Save it for Albus… You have nothing to be afraid of… Yeah, one more.”  
More silence –  
For fuck’s sake – were they kissing? Albus had wanted them to get along, but…

He took a deep breath and reminded himself that Theseus had said that they had not had sex. And Theseus’ definition of sex was pretty broad. Kissing was – kissing was ok, given that Albus had basically pushed Theseus into Gellert’s arms. And Theseus would cut Gellert loose if Albus told him to. Fine. Everything was fine. At least, everything _would be_ fine.

Moments later, the door to the parlour opened, and Gellert was walking in, followed by Theseus, who was so close behind him, it gave the impression that he was literally pushing Gellert into the room. Maybe he was.

“Albus?”  
Albus’ knees nearly buckled. Gellert’s voice was exactly the same - Albus would have known it was Gellert speaking his name if he had been invisible.  
He took a deep breath. He didn’t want Gellert to know how affected he was by simply hearing his voice again after all these years.

Gellert did not look exactly the same - it came as a shock, this visual reminder of how long it had been since they had seen one another. He looked - Merlin help him, he looked even sexier. He had been - not scrawny exactly, just… not finished. His build now was - better not to dwell on how good he looked in those trousers. And that shirt. And his face looked - harder somehow, sharper - all angles, surrounded by long wavy hair. No, not _all_ angles. His lips looked as soft as he remembered them feeling, and his amber eyes looked - uncertain?  
He had always looked so sure of himself - a boy who knew he was smarter, sexier, and more powerful than anyone else. Now - he had only seen Gellert look this uncertain once. Right before they had had sex for the first time, which - also was not what Albus wanted to be thinking about right now.

“Gellert,” he answered, trying to sound indifferent.

Theseus took his hand off of Gellert’s shoulder (how had he not noticed it was resting there?) and squeezed Gellert’s hand as he passed. He drew close – close enough to touch Albus, but he didn’t. He just bent forward and whispered in his ear, “I know that this is hard for you, but I expect you to play nice.”  
Then he stepped away and looked at each of the two men in turn. “I am going to go make us some tea. Please sit. Talk about the weather or something.”

Albus watched Theseus go.  
Then he turned to Gellert.  
“So. You trust him more than you trust me.”  
Gellert looked confused. “What? What do you mean?”  
“You never got in touch with me after you met with Theseus, and when you are finally ready to come back into our lives, you get in touch with Theseus first.”

“Albus – I – we can absolutely talk about this, but I need for us to settle some other things first. We need to talk about what we were to one another, and what things are important to us now. Who we are and what we have been doing. We don’t know each other anymore, Albus. I – need to know you, who you are now, before I give you the last two weeks of my life.”

“You do trust him more!”  
“He’s never betrayed me!” Gellert shouted.  
Betrayed?!  
Gellert put his head in his hands. “No, this was a mistake. I’m sorry, Albus. I shouldn’t have –“  
Gellert stood.

“You know he’s not letting us leave until tomorrow morning – the portkey doesn’t activate until six in the morning, and we have to hold a copy of _The Tales of Beedle the Bard_ and say the words, ‘I give up.’”  
Gellert’s eyes widened in his surprise, which was followed by an angry look crossing his face for just a moment, but then he began to laugh.  
“Oh, Albus. Your taste in men is – son of a bitch, that borders on brutality.”

Gellert sounded – admiring. Apparently deception and manipulation didn’t count as ‘betrayal.’  
Albus was annoyed that Gellert found Theseus’ behavior so amusing – perhaps even arousing. “Being outsmarted is one thing, but…”

“Oh, come on, Albus, you know that this is not a single step past being outsmarted. He just – tends towards manipulating a person’s insecurities in order to do it. He isn’t more cruel or more manipulative than either of us are. Just differently cruel and manipulative.”  
How dare Gellert think he could explain Theseus to him?!

“Did he tell you that instead of playing chess, he had me play a drinking game with him?”

Oh gods. Albus should have anticipated that. It wasn’t that Theseus didn’t like chess – he played chess with Albus often. But chess for Theseus was recreational – whereas drinking games were the tools by which he evaluated… everyone he could get to play. Albus didn’t like how far Theseus would take it sometimes – they had argued more than once about what Albus called Theseus’ ‘reckless emotional manipulation’ – but he couldn’t deny the results.  
Yes, ‘cruelty’ to ‘drinking game’ was not much of a leap, when talking about Theseus.

“A drinking game? Sweet Merlin. Which one?”  
“Two Truths and a Lie.”  
“He got you, Mr. ‘I have never revealed a secret unless I absolutely had to’, to play Two Truths and a Lie?”  
“He’s persuasive.”

“He’s gorgeous, you mean.”  
“Yes, fine. I’ll admit that he is a tall redhead, with beautiful eyes and a wickedly sexy smile. I can admit that I have a very particular type. Thanks to you.”  
Albus blushed.

“But, no. That wouldn’t have been enough. Surely you know that. He showed me that he is devious and intelligent and intriguing. I wanted to see where it went.”  
That was familiar. Gellert might be secretive, but his curiosity trumped any instinct for self-preservation he had – physical or psychological.  
Albus was beginning to wonder how many other things about Gellert had not changed.

He looked across the room and saw – a man he was not merely still attracted to, but a man he was still in love with. And he was terrified.  
He stood up suddenly.  
“I – wait here. I need to – umm – help Theseus in –“

Just then, Theseus appeared with the tea tray.  
Albus caught his eye – had he heard that last bit?  
Theseus set down the tray.  
“Gellert? Is it ok – Albus had a large lunch at 2:30 – would dinner at 8 suit you? I can send it with an elf.”  
Gellert nodded. “I prefer to eat late, myself.”

Theseus turned to Albus.  
“Albus, I believe we had planned for you to come with me to the wine cellar to confirm whether the wine selection here is sufficient, or if I will need to send some bottles from the more extensive cellar at the main house?”  
Thank all the gods.  
“Yes, I – “ Albus turned to Gellert, “I will be back in just a moment. Excuse me.”

Before they had made it out of the hallway, Albus had Theseus pressed up against a wall and was kissing him frantically. Theseus gave in readily – for a short time – then pushed Albus a small distance away.  
“Hey. No. Stop. Come into the kitchen and tell me what’s happening.”

The door to the kitchen swung shut behind them. Albus leaned against a counter and said, “He’s attracted to you, you know.”  
“I know. And I’m attracted to him. But you have nothing to worry about. I – right now, I am mostly reassuring him that I will welcome him if you take him back. And reassuring myself that having him in our marriage will work for me. I like him. We could be friends if the rest of this doesn’t work out. But whatever Gellert is to me will be entirely contingent upon your feelings about it. You know that, right?”

Albus turned away and started idly changing the colors of the dishes, then the shapes, then reorganizing the cabinets…  
“Albus?”  
“That’s not – what’s bothering me. Not what’s bothering me the most.”  
What was Theseus going to think of him?

“What is bothering you most then, Albus?”  
“I – still – I don’t know if – then again –“  
“You still love him,” Theseus interrupted. “I know.”  
“How do _you_ know? _I_ didn’t know. Not really. Not until we started talking, and –“

“Albus – you wouldn’t have risked our marriage over someone you weren’t in love with. I know you love me. But it was obvious to me that you must love Gellert too, because only love could have given you the courage required to ask me to invite another person into our marriage – into our bed.  
“When I first realized how you felt about him, I was frightened, but not for long. I know you. I trust you.  
“Was that what was bothering you? You were scared to tell me you love him?”

“No, it’s not – well, yes, but - Theseus, simply being in love with him is frightening. It means he can hurt me again. Can hurt me more. He – if he stays, I will always be afraid that he is going to leave. But if I send him away – that will hurt more. I think. I don’t know. No matter what happens, this is going to hurt.”

“It has already been hurting, Albus. Hurting both of you, all this time. Hurting him even more than you. The pain is nothing new – if anything, this is an opportunity to decrease it. So, try to pull yourself together, and remind yourself that this is what you wanted. You wanted him here. You asked me to invite him into our lives, and I did.”

“Life without him has been plenty hard for me!”  
Albus paused, shocked. How could he have said that to Theseus, of all people? Albus was forever telling him that he was above all others in his affections. And yet he was complaining about how difficult it had been to be wrenched from someone else? If Gellert had stayed, Theseus would never have been part of his life in this way. Was that what he wanted?

“I know, Love. I know it has been hard. I’m sorry.”  
Theseus was sorry. That just added to the guilt.

“I shouldn’t have put it that way. I only mean that he hasn’t moved on _at all_ and you did. You _got married_ to someone else. He has never found anyone to love but you. He has spent more than a decade tearing himself apart over every mistake he made with you, and he had no one to tell, no one to put him back together. That’s all I meant. I didn’t mean that it hasn’t been painful for you. I know it has. But you have had me, at least for a little while now, and he has had – no one.”

“You’re not – angry?”  
“About - ?”  
About pining for someone else the whole time they had been together.  
“Never mind.”

“Albus, I love you, more than anything. But I’m already growing to love him, too. And I want – he needs _someone_ to take care of him, Albus. And if we can be the ones to do that, then I think he really will stay – and then we can all of us learn how to take care of each other.”

“You think he will stay.”  
“I’m certain of it. As certain as I can be.”

That was a strong statement. Theseus rarely claimed to be certain about people, and yet he was better at reading people than anyone Albus had met.

“Just as certain as I am that it will destroy him if this doesn’t work out.”  
That seemed like too much pressure – which Theseus seemed to know, because he added, “It’s not on you to make this work, though. It is going to take hard work from all three of us.”  
“You – think you could love him?”  
“I think it will be nearly impossible not to, if we keep him around.”  
Albus nodded.

“I don’t want you to replace me, Theseus. You love him –“  
“Not yet –“  
“Sure, not yet, but – you will. And you think he’s sexy –“  
“I don’t remember saying that.”  
“You admitted that you found him attractive.”  
“I didn’t _admit_ it – that implies you had to ask. I _confessed_ it. Unprompted.”

“Can we keep the interruptions to a minimum? You could wait to lecture me on semantics –“  
“It was not a _lecture_ , so much as –“  
Albus shot Theseus an incredulous look, but noticed the impish look on his face. He had been teasing. What an irresistible man. Albus kissed him, and then led him to the kitchen table. They both sat on the long bench, straddling it, facing one another. Albus searched his face. Why had he ever thought he needed anyone else? Theseus was perfect.

But Gellert was perfect, too. Or – at least he had been. Wanting Gellert didn’t mean that Theseus was inadequate in any way. Wanting Gellert had only to do with Gellert being Gellert, not with Theseus not being Gellert.

“You were kissing him upstairs, earlier.”  
Theseus nodded, but otherwise did not reply.  
“And anyway, there’s no denying how gorgeous he is, is there? Gods – he looks better than he did 14 years ago. How does that make sense?”  
“Well, you’re teaching now. I’d be a little worried if you found sixteen-year olds to be the exemplars of peak attractiveness.”  
Albus laughed.

Theseus pulled Albus close. “I love you so very much.” He pushed Albus down so that he was lying on the bench, and lay on top of him. He began to kiss him, then pulled away, humming thoughtfully. The bench widened a bit.  
“That’s better,” Theseus said with a smile. He began grinding against Albus and kissing him deeply.

“You,” Theseus growled, “are irreplaceable. Do not think that there is anyone sexier than you. I can hardly think around you sometimes. You think I want to leave you here to fuck someone else? I would tear another orgasm out of you _right now_ if that weren’t tremendously rude to this person you love that is still waiting for you in the living room.”

“I got tired of waiting, actually,” Gellert said from the doorway of the kitchen, “And as jealous as I thought I would be, watching the two of you together is tremendously hot. It might be more rude for you not to continue!”

Albus felt himself blushing, but Theseus laughed. He kissed Albus two more times, gently, then pushed himself up and off of him.  
“Mr. Grindelwald – so kind of you to join us.”  
Theseus walked over to Gellert and kissed him on the lips, then said only just loud enough for Albus to hear, “No deflecting, arse. You - I am entrusting the man I love to you. You are going to talk to him, and once you have sorted some of your shit out, you are going to fucking play chess, do you understand me?”  
Play chess? Did he mean a drinking game? No, that couldn’t be it. Did he mean it literally?

Gellert smirked. “Play chess, you say?”  
“I will be very disappointed if you don’t play chess.” Theseus said – in his seductive voice?  
Dear Merlin.  
Not literally, then. They already had sexy inside jokes? About… chess?

“Hmm… and will I get to play chess with you too, Love?”  
_Love?_  
Theseus kissed Gellert gently once more and answered, “One thing at a time, handsome. Let’s see how this goes, first.”  
“I am not just handsome…”  
“Oh, no you don’t. Save your flirting for Albus. I’m leaving for the other cottage.”

Theseus walked back over to Albus and pulled him up off of the bench. He whispered in his ear, “I love you, Albus Dumbledore. I am thankful every single day to be married to you. But you have another husband, and the two of you have some issues to sift through. A lot of issues. But I trust you - I know you can do this. My hope is that you are both here when I get back, that you are almost natural around each other, that you are allowing yourself to laugh at his jokes, and that you have slept with him at least once.”  
“You’re serious.”  
“I’m dead serious. Tell me you don’t want him to fuck you. You’re in love with him, he’s gorgeous, you probably still remember what it feels like to have his cock in your mouth, in your arse…”

Albus was beginning to feel hot, and his breathing was becoming unsteady.  
“Theseus – “ he warned.  
“Have some hard conversations first, Love. But I mean it. If you are overwhelmed with needing him – I am over my jealousy about the two of you being together. But I feel like it would make you both feel more self-conscious about it if I were in the same house when you are having sex - the first few times, at least. That’s part of why I am leaving.”  
Albus blushed..

Then more loudly than Theseus had been speaking, just loud enough for Gellert to hear, Albus told Theseus, “I’m always going to want you. You know that, right?”  
Theseus took Albus’ face in both hands and kissed him thoroughly.  
“Gods, I hope so. I’m counting on it.”

Theseus made his way to the kitchen door, but Gellert turned to grab his arse as he passed. Theseus stopped and removed Gellert’s hand from his arse, bringing it to his mouth to kiss it. Then he whispered something in Gellert’s ear that Albus couldn’t hear.  
Gellert rolled his eyes.  
“You wish.”  
“I mean it, Gellert.”

Gellert grabbed Theseus and kissed him, almost posessively. As if he were as reluctant for Theseus to leave as Albus was.  
Theseus broke away quickly and poked Gellert in the chest with his index finger.  
“You. Will. Be good to him. And that includes putting this,” and here Theseus gestured between himself and Gellert, “On the backburner. I will not be your security blanket, and I will not be your buffer. This is between the two of you.”

Theseus tucked some of Gellert’s hair behind one ear, and in a gentler tone of voice added, “You will be fine. This is all going to be fine.”  
Then with one last look back at Albus, he walked through the door of the kitchen and was gone. Theseus was gone, and Albus was alone with Gellert. 

Theseus was right - he wanted Gellert’s cock in his mouth so badly, it would just take a word from Gellert for him to drop to his knees. His own cock was so hard that it was difficult to think of anything else.  
He knew he needed to wait. He did. But - gods, that man was insanely hot, and it had been so so long.

Gellert was the first to speak.  
“The tea in the living room will soon get cold. Shall we –“  
“You first, I need to –“  
“Adjust yourself, Love?”  
Albus blushed.

“You know, if you would only wear underwear, it would be slightly more difficult to tell.”  
“Gellert –“  
“Right, ok. Really the wrong time for that. I’ll just – go back to the living room, shall I?”

Albus caught up to Gellert just outside of the living room. He put his hand on Gellert’s shoulder, then snatched it back suddenly.  
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to – I shouldn’t – I was just trying to get your attention, and –“  
“Stop, Albus. It’s ok. You get to touch me. You get to be uncomfortable that you touched me, too. It’s ok.”

They stood there silently for a moment, then Gellert gestured for Albus to walk into the living room ahead of him. They sat on opposite sides of the sofa.

“Albus. I’m sorry. That day, I shouldn’t have – Aunt Bathilda told me not to – “  
“Gellert, no. I’m not ready for that conversation yet. I need some tea. I need you to – maybe tell me about your drinking game with Theseus first. Then we can work backwards. You can tell me how you spent the first few years after you left. Then we can talk about how, umm, how that summer ended. Ok?”  
“Ok, but first even before all of that – I have been waiting twelve years to tell you – I have the Elder Wand.”

It took Albus a moment to register that.  
“The – you have the Elder Wand?”  
Albus scrambled onto Gellert’s lap. His hands were in Gellert’s hair – so soft – gods, he had missed Gellert’s hair.  
“How did you manage to -”  
His tongue was in Gellert’s mouth… no, still not close enough. He pulled Gellert onto the floor on top of him. Yes. Perfect. That was exactly what had been missing - his clothed erection rubbing against Gellert’s –

“Albus!” Gellert gasped when he finally wrenched his mouth free of Albus’. “Difficult conversations first, remember?”  
Albus answered by rolling Gellert over and pressing his shoulders into the floor. He kissed him again. Just like he remembered, but better. So much better. Gellert groaned and rolled his hips. Albus moved his mouth to Gellert’s neck. Oh, gods. He smelled the same, too. He had forgotten Gellert’s scent until just now. He began fumbling with the buttons of Gellert’s shirt. He needed – everything – he couldn’t wait –

Gellert closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and gently removed Albus. He sat up and ran one hand through his hair in the way he used to do when he had been thrown off balance and was trying to regroup.  
“Fuck. Albus, that was - you are - what was all of that about?”  
“The – you have the Wand – you – I have to hear all about it. Have you found the others?”  
Albus climbed back onto Gellert. 

Gellert started laughing. “I should have guessed you had a Hallows kink. How many times did we fuck on that Peverell grave, do you think?”  
Albus blushed and looked away.  
“I’m sorry, Gellert. I sort of – lost control.”  
“You certainly did. You know what your husband told me?”

Albus looked back at Gellert.  
“ _Other_ husband. My – I’m still married to you, too.”  
The words had come out without a thought. For all of his fear, it seemed that Albus – actually wanted to be married to Gellert. It wasn’t the first time he had said so, but – to say so directly to Gellert. His chest tightened. He slid off of Gellert and sat on the floor. 

“Gellert. I still want – I’m not sorry that we made the pact, are you?”  
Gellert frowned. “No. No, I’m not sorry. But it doesn’t seem that it matters one way or the other. The pact - magic doesn’t recognize it anymore. Or - it didn’t when you… Anyway. I don’t think that the blood pact is - real anymore.”

“It is real if we say that it is,” Albus countered, taking Gellert’s hand. “It matters. It matters that we made the pact and meant it. And if we still mean it… I still mean it, and that matters, too. That matters more than anything. And anyway, we don’t know that the pact is dead. It could very well just be - sleeping.”  
Gellert nodded slowly. He pulled his hand free from Albus’ and twisted a loose thread in the rug between his fingers. Albus waited nervously. This was it. This was when he would decide to leave.

“I want to be ready for this, Albus. But the you I know - I’ve been living with 17 year old Albus for all of these years. And that - that isn’t who you are.”  
Albus nodded. It helped to know that Gellert was scared, why he was scared. But Gellert had never handled fear well, so it was probably a good idea to lighten the atmosphere.

“You seemed ready enough to kiss me.”  
“I believe that you were the one who threw me to the floor, Love. I just - followed your lead.”  
Albus laughed. “You did not! You were an enthusiastic participant - so much so that I was surprised when you stopped me.”  
“No, restraint was never my strong point, was it? The truth is that I have a healthy respect for your - _other_ husband, as you say.”  
Theseus? Theseus had encouraged Albus to follow through if he was overcome with need, and he certainly had been… Why would Gellert think that Theseus would want them to stop?

Then Albus remembered that Gellert had been about to tell him something that Theseus had said - before Albus had interrupted.  
“Did Theseus say something to you?”

“He threatened to kill me if I had sex with you before you and I had figured out who we were to one another - before we agreed that I was staying. He said, ‘That overrated wand can’t be all that invincible, if it has passed by bloodshed through scores of hands. I will not hesitate to show you how it is done.’ For a person who seems capable of healthy emotions, your Theseus is certainly cold-blooded. He’s scarier than I am. I’m impressed, frankly, that you had the nerve to date him in the first place.”

Albus had missed almost all of that, except the warning that Theseus might kill Gellert if he weren’t careful with Albus (which was – romantic, he guessed, though a little patronising. Albus didn’t need anyone protecting him), and –  
“He called the Elder Wand _overrated?!_ ”  
“I know! I had thought that I understood what drew you to him, but this!”

“Well, he has many other good qualities. I think I can forgive him for not sharing our enthusiasm. And it might be better if you and I have some things that are just ours. If you stay. I think I’d like for you to stay.”  
“I think I want to too, Albus, but – you need to slow down, Love. We have a lot to talk about before we make that decision.”

“Starting with the Wand?” Albus asked eagerly.  
“Hmm… no. Given your earlier reaction, I think I need to save that story for when we are ready to tear each other’s clothes off, finally. No, let’s start with Theseus – and his drinking games, and his outstanding sobering potion. Then I can - show you my Wand.” And he winked.  
Albus rolled his eyes. There it was. His flirty swagger was not gone - it had just been hiding. 

“Tell me about meeting Theseus, then. He told me almost nothing – he said that you could tell me yourself when you were ready.”  
“Oh? Fascinating…”  
Gellert didn’t say anything more. Albus supposed that it was hard to know where to begin. He waited.

“Theseus said that you and he would help me take over Wizarding Britain, slowly, peacefully, secretly.”  
Ah.  
“So that’s why you came back.”

“Oh, no, Love, no.” Gellert reached out and took Albus’ hand. “I came back because I seem to break things when I am alone. And I thought that maybe, with you and Theseus, I might learn to build things instead. I came back because I was destroying myself, and because if I didn’t come back, I was only going to destroy the people I most wanted to save. And – because my life has been quite boring without you in it.”

Albus wasn’t sure he was comfortable with this new vulnerable Gellert. He didn’t know enough to know how much of this was real, or how close Gellert was to breaking. He needed to shift the conversation, or he was going to be too nervous. He didn’t want to have to flee to Theseus before they had even had dinner. 

“Well, we can’t have you bored,” Albus said with a cautious smile. “Perhaps you would like to - play chess?”  
Gellert smiled broadly. “Oh, Albus. Darling. You have no idea what you are asking for.”  
“Then tell me.”


	3. Gellert

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is for Candyphoenix, who wanted to know what happened next

**Chapter Three  
Gellert**

**Sunday - Monday**  
After breakfast on Sunday, the morning after Albus arrived, they took a walk, and Albus stopped to sit on a rock overlooking the sea. Gellert sat beside him, close enough for his thigh to touch Albus’ thigh. Albus had laid his hand on Gellert’s leg and started singing a song that Gellert had written for him a couple of weeks before he had left. Gellert sang the harmony – a harmony that he had never had a chance to share. A harmony that had never been heard outside of his own head.  
Remembering the melody he understood, but how was it possible that they both remembered all the words? Forgetting would have been far easier. 

When the song was sung and all that was left was the sound of the waves on the rocks below them, Gellert felt Albus’ shoulder trembling against his own, and he found himself holding Albus while he cried. 

Sobs became sniffles, and sniffles became grim emptiness. They trudged back to the house and hid away in the bed, holding one another and talking about what had happened to each of them _after_ – in the weeks after Ariana had died. In the silence that followed, Albus began undressing him with hesitant fingers. 

“Are you sure?” Gellert asked. “Do you really want – can you – I don’t want this if you don’t want this. Us.”  
“I do. I need you Gellert – please.”  
“Albus – I want – “  
‘I want a future,’ Gellert wanted to say, but couldn’t.  
“I can’t do this until you are ready to forgive me, Love.”  
“Forgive _us_. I want to forgive _us_.”

Gellert didn’t protest further. Albus took his time rediscovering Gellert’s body, reverently wondering over him as if he were something precious, humming with delight, and occasionally saying something like, ‘right here’ or ‘so beautiful’ or ‘perfect’ as he traced with his fingers the places he was next going to visit with his lips, his tongue, even, adorably, the tip of his nose.

Gellert wouldn’t have expected to know naturally when the time had come to roll them over, so that Albus was underneath him, so that he could move over Albus’ body, cataloguing every change – so that now when he dreamed of Albus, he might dream of him as he was now, and not as he had been.  
Miraculously, Albus was ready to surrender at the very time that Gellert was ready to take ownership of Albus, and his hands drew delicious sounds out of Albus, barely louder than a breath. And then, after several minutes, the sound Gellert had forgotten, a stretched-out whine that slowly raised in pitch until it hit the note it had been looking for, like a violin being tuned. 

Gellert lifted up his head to look at Albus, smiling, before taking a finger and running it up his inner thigh, stopping just short of grazing Albus’ balls.  
“Please,“ Albus insisted, and Gellert licked and touched and teased for so long that Albus finally propped himself up on his elbows and huffed impatiently, “I’ve been ready for more than 20 minutes, you dumb fuck. Get inside of me already.”

Gellert burst out laughing. That was the permission he had been needing. Yes, they had needed to have a ‘difficult conversation.’ But afterwards? He needed them back to where they had been the afternoon before - Albus impatiently wanting him, ready to take charge himself if Gellert didn’t _get on with it._

It was more than Gellert had hoped for. Not the sex, which, yes, was amazing. But the attentiveness. That long ago summer, he had kept nothing from Albus – not intentionally – not after the first two weeks anyway. And with every revelation, Albus had only loved him more – Albus had made him believe that he might be lovable. To have Albus looking at him like that again – not merely like he knew Gellert, but like Gellert was _worth knowing_ – he had never stopped wanting that, from the time he left.  
Albus was so close to him right now – and he wasn’t drawing back – if anything he was drawing still closer. This, Gellert supposed, was forgiveness – being embraced as if the only important thing was that they had one another now.

Forgiveness was nothing like forgetting.  
Forgiveness could not keep the voices at bay. Late that night, after a day of conversation and laughter and kissing and one memorable kitchen mishap (which would have been much more of a disaster if it hadn’t been for Albus calling for the house elf), the voices came. Albus couldn’t help him – Albus was asleep. In the dark and quiet, Gellert heard them:

_\+ He’s never going to love you again. One day he might say so, but it will only be out of habit. He won’t be saying it to you. He’ll be saying it to a 16 year old boy who doesn’t exist anymore. It’s not you he wants.  
\+ He doesn’t trust anyone anymore – he’s always waiting for anyone he cares about to leave - you did that to him. You broke him beyond fixing.  
\+ Possibly the best duellist of his generation - has he duelled at all since you left him?  
\+ If he knew why you went to Theseus and not him, he would turn you both out._

And…  
_\+ There’s nothing you have to offer him that Theseus isn’t doing for him already._

That last one was not the only reason he persuaded Albus to fuck him early the next morning. But… he would have to admit later that it was a contributing factor. 

Albus had the most remarkable cock. So good. It seemed to push the screams right out of him. Gellert wasn’t quiet at any time, to be fair. But when Albus was fucking him, gods. He didn’t moan, he didn’t groan – he shouted. His throat was going to be sore when they were done.  
“Yes!” and “Fuck!” and “Albus! Gods! Yes!”  
But mostly inarticulate wordless shouts. 

It wasn’t just Albus’ cock, it wasn’t just the force and rhythm and how he somehow hit just the right place every. single. time.  
It was the way Albus looked at him, wild and focused at the same time, like he was taking possession of Gellert, and would gladly tear him apart if that was what was required. Like he feared nothing and wanted nothing and was at the mercy of nothing, like he could not be stopped from taking whatever he needed.  
Feral. 

And _fuck_ he had missed feral Albus more than any other Albus he had loved.

They were getting louder now – the bed began to thump loudly against the wall, and Albus laughed at the sound of it, then only began thrusting into Gellert more forcefully.

Albus did stop a few moments later to drag the two of them back down the bed, saving Gellert from bashing his head against the headboard. Gellert took the opportunity the lull provided to pull Albus down to kiss him.  
Albus pulled away and looked down at Gellert, covering his wildness in a blanket of concern.

“Are you ok, Gellert?”  
“Shut up and fuck me,” Gellert replied.  
“No, I will not. Answer the question.”  
“This is perfect. You’re perfect. How dare you ask if I am ‘ok’? ‘Ok’ is an inadequate word for anything you could do to me.”  
Albus laughed. “I love you.”

Oh.  
Gellert’s smile faded.  
Albus started to recede, as Gellert withdrew into himself.  
The voices.  
‘He didn’t mean it.’

“I’m sorry,” Albus said haltingly, and Gellert felt him making moves to come out. No. No, this – he couldn’t let this end this way. He grabbed Albus’ arse and held him fast.  
“Don’t. Albus. I need - give me a minute to parse that. I was expecting you never to say it again.”  
“Why wouldn’t I say it again?”

“Are you even fucking serious right now?”  
Albus looked thoughtful for a moment, and then mischievous.  
“It seems that I’m not fucking _anyone_ right now. Let’s remedy that, shall we?”

Albus began rocking against Gellert, rolled one of his nipples between his fingers, and then began pounding into him as hard as he had been doing before, looking as wild as he had earlier when he had been in danger of driving the bed through the wall…  
Gellert’s head tipped back.  
“Fuuuuck!! Albus!”  
“You – Are – Mine.” Albus answered. 

The bed began drumming on the wall again, and the sound of it was all that Gellert knew. That and the smell of their sweat combined with the spicy scent of cloves that seemed to linger in this room, and Albus’ fingernails digging into his shoulders, and the sheets, damp and a bit scratchy now, under his back.  
But soon he didn’t even know that – soon all that was left was Albus’ cock filling his arse, the tightening in his balls, and the sound of his roar filling the room as he came – like a bestiarius being consumed alive by a bear. And then – then he knew nothing.

When he next was fit to notice – anything – his head was on Albus’ chest, and his arm was draped over Albus’ body, his hand holding Albus’ hand. Albus had wrapped an arm around his shoulder.  
“We _are_ going to talk about this, Gellert.” 

‘This.’ About Albus and whether he loved Gellert, probably.

“I didn’t want us to _never_ talk about it. Just – “  
“Not when my cock was in your arse. I got that.”  
They were both silent, and Albus’ heartbeat slowed, and Gellert began to wonder if Albus was falling asleep.

“I meant it, Gellert. I’ve been thinking it since just after I first arrived. Since that moment in the parlour when I almost fled ignominiously for the kitchen.”  
“You did flee.”  
“Fine, I did flee.”

Gellert didn’t want to offend Albus, but he couldn’t trust those words from him. Not yet. But Gellert couldn’t say so, either. He tested combinations of words in his head. They all seemed lacking.  
“You didn’t know anything about me. You didn’t – it’s not possible for you to have loved me yet. At that point.”

“No, you’re right. Mostly right. Why do you think I fled?”  
There were plenty of reasons Gellert could think of.

“I could see some things that were the same – already bits of your personality from before were shining through, and I was terrified, because I felt like I was in love with you, but I didn’t know who you were in that moment well enough to – “  
Albus broke himself off, and Gellert didn’t try to complete his sentence for him.

Finally, Albus continued, “Nobody _ever_ knows enough about someone else to say, ‘I love you.’ It’s – an act of faith. It’s – I’m saying, Gellert, that there’s nothing I have seen in you that I do not embrace completely. And I think that, if you don’t go, if you stay, I’m going to keep finding things about you that I love, and I’m not going to find anything in you that I can’t hold.”  
Gellert sat up.  
“Is this – is this how you feel about Theseus, too?”

“Gellert, we’re talking about how I feel about you. Not Theseus.”  
“I know, but - we are going to need to talk about Theseus. We would not be here if it weren’t for him. We are in a house that his family owns, and he has been less than five minutes away this whole time. I’ve – this has been – I haven’t been so happy since – well, since Godric’s Hollow, as I have been since you arrived Saturday. You – I missed you so much, and being with you – but Albus, if I come back with you –“

“You might come back?”  
Albus was smiling cautiously. How had he not known? The day before, Gellert would never have been able to worship Albus in such minute detail if he hadn’t wanted more than that one morning.  
“We would not be in bed like this together if I didn’t want to come back with you.”  
Albus nodded.  
“But if I do, what is this going to look like?”

Albus pulled a pillow onto his face and groaned. “I don’t know –“  
“I’m ready to live with the two of you. Are you ready to live with both Theseus and I in the same place? This – what you and I have had the past day or two has been wonderful, but it is artificial. It is time for us to consider what you really want, Albus.”

“Theseus – I am worried that he will think that I am rejecting him, replacing him.“  
“Albus. From what I’ve seen, he’s going to be fine. He trusts you. He loves you. And _he told us to have sex with one another._ This is not going to be some kind of surprise to him.”  
“You’re right, of course.”

And then, a self-destructive impulse compelled Gellert to ask, “Are you still going to want me when Theseus comes back? Or is it just – _easier_ if this was some sort of vacation?”  
Albus didn’t answer. 

Ah.  
This was – not what he was hoping it was, then. This was just – slate cleaning.  
Theseus had done his best to prepare him for the possibility. He already had plan B in place – he wouldn’t even need to go up to the main house to say goodbye to Theseus. Probably better not to. Probably better for Albus if he could just cast Gellert as the bad guy in all this. 

Gellert rolled out of bed and began walking to the bathroom. 

“Balls. Gellert, stop.”  
Gellert stopped, but did not turn around. He rested his head against the door, his hand on the doorknob.  
“Gellert, you arse. I’ve _never_ stopped wanting you. _Never._ I just – don’t want anyone to be hurt. I don’t have any idea how this is going to work!”  
The furniture was beginning to tremble. Gellert turned warily to peek at Albus.  
_“Easier,”_ Albus spat. “What does that mean in this context? I want it to work, but – I don’t know how, and -”

Gellert sighed. This was how Albus sounded when he was afraid. And conflicted. When every choice seemed like the wrong one. He remembered this tone of voice. He remembered the consequences of ignoring it.  
Gellert ran his hand through his hair. He walked back to the bed.  
“We’ll figure it out. I promise.”  
He leaned down and kissed the tip of Albus’ nose. 

“But first, let me get you a glass of water?”  
“Water? For breakfast?”  
“You want breakfast in bed, Liebling?” Gellert asked.  
“I can come down for breakfast, I suppose.”  
Albus was too adorable. Particularly when he was acting put-upon by something simple like having to get out of bed to eat. Gellert just wanted to leap right back onto him and pepper him with kisses. 

But he knew that he needed a break. Albus telling him that he loved him, and then seeming to reject him directly afterwards… witnessing that discharge of Albus’ built-up excess magic… Albus’ fear of making the wrong choice, of being unable to meet conflicting obligations - that tone of voice... 

Every bad memory from that long-ago summer had come rushing to the surface at once. It was too easy to blame that final duel and its aftermath for his agony when he thought of that summer with Albus – but there had been many indignities leading up to that tragedy. He might not have reacted so strongly to Aberforth drawing his wand on him if Albus had not been feeding his insecurities all summer long. Not that he blamed Albus – anymore. He understood why he had been so torn about his feelings for Gellert, why he couldn't decide what he wanted from their relationship. But that didn’t make it any easier to trust Albus, and it didn't make what had happened hurt any less.

The past few days had lulled Gellert into thinking that his scabs were really scars – but right now, they were bleeding too freely for him to be under that illusion any longer. Albus pouting over having to dress for breakfast would not distract him for long. What Gellert really needed was to leave the room, come back, and discover that _this_ Albus, present day 32 year old Albus, was there waiting for him. He needed Albus to say, ‘I love you,’ again and again, until he could learn to believe it.

“I’m sure the elf won’t mind bringing breakfast up to you. She adores you.”  
“It is easy to get an elf to love you Gellert. You simply have to call them by name.”  
“Ah, but that would require me to remember their names!”  
Albus rolled his eyes, but he was smiling, so Gellert was not worried.  
“Please tell me you do not have an elf in Hogsmeade.”  
“We do not.”  
“Thank the gods. I do not like the feeling of always being watched. Now, I am going to go get us some water glasses – “

“I could always transfigure –“  
Oh, no. No no no – there had to be a way to get out of the room.  
“I suppose you could. That would save me the trip. And me fetching a tin of biscuits for you is not necessary.”  
“Biscuits?”  
“Biscuits.”

Albus looked as if he were thinking it over. As if they were not both aware that Albus knew he had just been played and was nonetheless allowing it.  
“I suppose you ought to go to the kitchen then.”  
“I’ll be right back.”

///

When Gellert opened the door to the kitchen, he saw Theseus standing at a counter, floating things out of the pantry: flour, salt, eggs, apples… 

“Theseus! Uh – how long have you –“  
Theseus turned and smirked. “Long enough to know that you are a noisy lay.”  
Gellert cleared his throat.  
“And are you –“  
Theseus raised one eyebrow. “You can ask Albus if I’m noisy. In my experience, one doesn’t know this sort of thing about oneself. Not accurately.”

“That – was not what I was asking, as you well know.”  
“Shut up. I’m fine. Let me get you a couple of glasses of water.”  
“And – biscuits?”  
Theseus laughed.  
“Naturally. Why not precede breakfast with biscuits?”  
Gellert laughed. “Exactly.”

It seemed like it should feel awkward to be around Theseus so soon after having Theseus’ husband’s cock in his arse – but it didn’t feel awkward at all. There was something to be said for not having history with a person, of course, but – there was more to it than that. Not that Gellert was interested in closely examining it at the moment.

“I’m glad you’re here, Theseus.”  
“Oh?”  
“Albus… I’m not sure he’s going to know what to do about… he’s scared and feeling cornered, as if…”  
“He’s afraid that it is going to hurt me for the two of you to be having sex. Well, that’s all I need not to be hurt, I guess. He wouldn’t be worried if he didn’t still want me, too.”  
Well, that wasn’t the _whole_ problem, but it was a good start. Was it really possible for a person to be this pragmatic?

Gellert came closer, and Theseus met him.  
“You’re really ok, Love?” Gellert asked quietly, his hand on Theseus’ chest.  
Theseus bent his head down to press his lips gently against Gellert’s. Then he pulled back and searched Gellert’s face. He kissed him again.  
“Are you? What has Albus done to you? Or should I ask what you have done to yourself?”  
Gellert didn’t know how to answer, so he didn’t. Theseus pulled Gellert close, and Gellert buried his face in Theseus' neck.  
“Gellert?” Theseus spoke quietly. Gellert didn't move. “Please tell me you are coming home with us?”

"Do you - want me to?"  
"Of course, I want you to, but - Albus?"  
That was a fine question.  
“I think – Albus seems to want me to – he keeps saying ‘if you come to Hogsmeade.’ And I know I want to, but – he hasn’t asked me yet.”  
Theseus squeezed him more tightly.  


“Yes, he has. He’s asking when he says, ‘if you come to Hogsmeade.’ Especially if – has he talked about future plans he has for you, as if they are inevitable?”  
Yes, but -  
“I wish he’d ask me directly.”

Theseus released Gellert, then took his hand and led him to the bench at the kitchen table.  
“Gellert, he’s terrified. He’s not going to ask. But – would it be enough for me to ask you directly? Come live with us, Gellert. I want – I need for you to come live with us. And Albus needs you, too. If anything, that’s _why_ he’s not asking.”  
Gellert was silent. Theseus kissed Gellert on the forehead.  
“Quiet that self-deprecating brain. I want you, he wants you, you want – us, I hope. Come live with us. I’m not asking casually. _I’m sure._ ”

It felt wrong to be having this conversation without Albus, almost behind his back. No - completely behind his back. Albus didn’t know that Theseus was in the house, even.  
But – it also felt grounding. He was not alone with Albus’ fears, wondering if Albus was going to reject him in spite of himself _again_ somehow. He had Theseus, and Theseus was going to make sure that they didn’t do anything stupid.

As if he were reading his mind, Theseus asked,  
“So, you think it is better for him not to know I’m here?”  
“I – don’t know. Right after we’ve fucked?”

Gellert winced. Was that – ok? Theseus had heard them, but still, saying it that way?  
But Theseus carried on as if Gellert had asked, ‘right after playing tennis?’

“Hmm… I am going to need to learn how to give the two of you space in a way that – feels natural. That will be an interesting problem. Yes. You are right. After you’ve had sex, that space belongs to the two of you – it is really not the right time for me to sweep in as if my reassurances were all that were important.”  
Theseus rolled his eyes, and added, “And here I was about to bake turnovers. That’s the very opposite of stealth. And it is not what is called for at all. Thank you Gellert, for putting me back in touch with reality.”

That was – not a function he had expected Theseus to ever need Gellert to play for him. That could not have been what Theseus believed had been happening between the two of them just then. What Gellert wouldn’t give for some non-negotiable yes or no questions. 

“And – why were you going to make - turnovers?”  
“I had to have something to keep me busy so that I wouldn’t go up there and watch. Can you imagine how Albus would have taken that? I almost followed my arousal right up the stairs. It sounded like the two of you were going to tear the house down!”

Gellert did not know how Albus would have taken it, but he was glad for Theseus’ restraint. Gellert had needed for it to be just him and Albus in the room – _this time_. But his cock was beginning to wake up just thinking about having Theseus watch them. It was something that Gellert was feeling eager to try – if Albus would allow it. 

Theseus walked to the pantry to fetch the biscuits, and Gellert stood to grab a couple of glasses. When Theseus turned back around, he gave Gellert a good look.  
“Fuck, you’re gorgeous,” he breathed.  
Well. That was a relief. Here he was, wearing nothing whatsoever, and until now Theseus had given no indication that he was affected. Not that Gellert was needing anything particular from Theseus – after all, it had only been a few minutes before that he and Albus had been… 

Still, Gellert didn’t want to have lost the – whatever it was – that he had had with Theseus just a few days before. That is, before he had started fucking Theseus’ husband. 

This had seemed less complicated on paper, and that was saying something. Perhaps Albus was not wrong to be concerned.

“Gods, I had forgotten! You’ve never seen me with my pants off before, and here I am soft and sweaty and sticky with come –“  
“My husband’s come, at that.”

His own come, actually. Albus’ come was – mostly still in his arse. But that was not something that Theseus needed to know. Theseus had plenty of knowledge of Albus that Gellert didn’t have. Gellert didn’t need to share his few secrets just yet.

Gellert grinned. “ _My_ husband’s come, you mean.”  
Theseus laughed. “See? You and I are going to be fine. And if we are fine, Albus will be fine.”  
Theseus set the biscuits on the table.  
‘I love you,’ Gellert almost said, and he thought about what Albus had claimed. ‘An act of faith.’ Did Gellert believe in Theseus – did he trust him to never reveal something of himself that Gellert could not embrace? Did he believe in Albus this way? 

“Theseus, I know you didn’t just show up so that we could have this conversation. Why are you here?”  
“I _did_ just show up for this conversation. Or, I didn’t know I’d speak with you first. I was checking up on the both of you. It’s been a long time, and Albus and I are going to have to go back to work eventually. I needed to know if the two of you were getting along yet, and if not… to see if there was anything I could do to help. But it seems I have no need to be concerned about that.”

Gellert smirked. “Yes, we are – getting along – just fine. Not that I wouldn’t welcome your help. Anything, you say?”  
Theseus just laughed.  
“You are jumping the gun, Grindelwald. Go upstairs and feed your husband.” 

Gellert hummed as if he were thinking it over.  
“I think that I am going to need another kiss first.”  
“Well aren’t you a greedy god? It isn’t enough for you to have one man worship you so entirely? You are already in need of another’s adoration not ten minutes later?”

That had not at all been Gellert’s intention, but it sounded appealing. 

“I don’t need your _adoration_ , just your mouth.”  
Theseus advanced on Gellert intently, like a cat. He grabbed Gellert’s arse and pulled him close. Gellert’s cock came completely to life – Theseus’ hand on his bare arse – it was – was Theseus feeling this too? This overwhelming need that was just erasing anything that wasn’t feeding it?

Theseus’ lips hovered in front of Gellert’s for just a moment before they moved beside his ear, and whispered, “You will find, Gellert, that there is no difference between having my mouth and having my adoration.”  
Theseus peeled away from Gellert and continued, “But that will have to wait.”  
Always teasing. 

“That’s alright, I’m probably too – exhausted – anyway.”  
Gellert lifted his arms above his head and stretched.  
Theseus grinned. “That’s enough posing, Adonis.”  
Adonis. It wasn’t a kiss, but it wasn’t nothing.  
Nevertheless – 

“First I’m an old man, and now I’m a young god?”  
“Hmm. As I recall, Adonis was not himself a god.”  
“No, indeed. As _I_ recall, his lovers were not able to agree about how best to share him.”  
“Was that how the story went?”

“Different storytellers may tell the same story differently.”  
“Perhaps you think that was an infelicitous comparison, then.”  
“Oh, no – I’m very happy to be beautiful enough to make Aphrodite weep.”

Theseus laughed.  
“I will never need to worry that you don’t know how gorgeous you are. You are probably more aware than anyone.”  
“It is hard not to be aware with all of this attention. Alas, it is quite a burden to bear.”

“I would love to further inconvenience you, and just look at you all day, but you need to get back up to Albus, or he is going to come down and find me – and I am feeling increasingly sure that it would be better to be a little less – spontaneous – with this particular conversation. I’ll tidy up and go back. I can send an elf over with breakfast in about half an hour, together with an invitation to supper this evening at the main house.”

Gellert picked up the glasses and the biscuits.  
“I would never let you simply look at me all day, Theseus. Unless you were suggesting looking at me with more than just your eyes.”  
He winked and left Theseus in the kitchen. Theseus was right – Gellert didn’t want to keep Albus waiting any longer than he already had done. 

///

Gellert had heard people speak of Albus Dumbledore as a competent, confident, powerful man, even at this young age perhaps the most consequential Wizard in Europe. That Wizard was nowhere to be found that evening. No, this Albus was a mess. 

Albus had walked in silence – not peaceful silence, but a silence that vibrated with anxious energy - taking Gellert’s hand and then self-consciously dropping it three times in less than three minutes.  
Gellert finally lost patience. The next time Albus took his hand, he said, “Pick one, Albus.”

“I just – I don’t know – what if –“  
“Will it upset him to see us holding hands? Will he be jealous? Will it upset him to see us not holding hands? Will he think we are not getting along with one another? I don’t know Albus! But I _do_ know that you are very near to upsetting _me_ with this dithering. I am not a prop in your relationship with Theseus.”

“I didn’t mean – “  
“No, you didn’t. You didn’t think about me very much at all in this scenario, I imagine.”  
“Gellert – “

“Decide whether you want to hold my hand or not. For yourself. And if you can’t decide, I will decide for you. But for the love of all the gods, do not decide on the basis of what you think Theseus will want.”  
“But –“

“Fine. Albus – what Theseus wants is for you to be an adult human, capable of making choices for yourself.”

Albus stopped and shouted, a guttural anxious sound.  
That was progress. Maybe. Unless he had just permanently alienated him. Too early to tell.

“What do you want from me?” Albus shouted at Gellert.  
“I want you to stop being unnecessarily fidgety!”  
Now that those words were out of his mouth, they seemed a small complaint for the volume at which he was shouting them. He put his head in his hands.  
“That’s right,” he confessed, to himself as much as anyone, “I am shouting at you for fidgeting.”

Gellert’s anger might have dissipated quickly, but Albus’ had not.

“Well, maybe I’m frightened! Maybe I’ve not slept with anyone other than Theseus in years! And he said he was ok with it, but I don’t know that, do I? What if I’ve ruined everything? I always ruin everything! And you’re not wanting me to think about Theseus at all, but you are just going to have to get used to me thinking about him! You can’t just make demands about me holding your hand or not holding your hand or not being uncomfortable!”

Albus had been nervous ever since they had received the dinner invitation, but Gellert had not been prepared for things to escalate to this point. He stood still, as if he were in the presence of a volatile dangerous beast, and he supposed he was, in a way.

“Albus. I _do_ want you to think about Theseus. In fact, _please_ stop and think about Theseus for a moment, who he really is. Has he ever yelled at you?”  
“No. But –“  
“No. Have you ever hurt him?”  
“I’m sure I have, but –“  
“When?”  
“I don’t know.”

“I think you are right that you probably have. It would be impossible to never hurt someone who lives with you, who cares about you. But if you don’t know when… then Albus, you never could have hurt him all that badly if there were no memorable consequences.”  
Unlike, it went without saying, how badly he had hurt Gellert.

“But this is different.”  
“Yes, this is different. This is scary for you, I know. But the longer it takes for us to get there, the longer we will have to worry, not knowing what to expect. Now. Does it feel better to you to hold my hand, or to not hold my hand? I know you are anxious. Which one makes you less anxious?”  
“Not – not – “

Albus stopped stammering and looked Gellert in the eyes. “But I don’t want to hurt your feelings either.”  
“Well. Now that you have acknowledged that, my feelings are well on their way back to normal. Thank you for not wanting to hurt my feelings. So – you were about to say, _not_ holding hands?”  
“Is that ok?”

“Yes, it’s fine. Now - we’re still a good four hundred yards out – is it ok if I hug you? Just for a moment?”  
Albus exhaled, and seemed to sag as he did so.  
“Yes, please.”

Gellert walked slowly to Albus. They wrapped their arms around each other and stood almost unmoving, holding one another. Then Gellert felt one of Albus’ hands move into Gellert’s hair. Gellert’s breathing started to slow. Albus began to melt into the hug. Good. Now they were both feeling more relaxed. 

Gellert pulled back a little and looked up at Albus.  
“Ready?”  
“I suppose. It would be nice to just go on holding you.”  
“There will be lots more hugs, Albus. Some of them tonight, even. I promise.”

Albus kissed Gellert gently on the cheek.  
“Thank you.”  
“For what? For – oh. Yes, well. It will be my pleasure to lose my temper with you as often as you require, as long as we both shall live.”

Albus gave him a little shove.  
“Arse,” he said – but he was smiling, so Gellert smiled back.  
“Well. Let's go, then. _Not_ holding hands.”

///

It does not help to tell a person who is worrying that they are worrying for nothing. Gellert knew that. But he also knew for a fact that Albus _was_ worrying for nothing, so his inability to empathize with Albus’ fears had made the walk all the more difficult.  
But in hindsight, that walk had been made easier by knowing that the key to all of Albus’ frantic worrying coming to an end was waiting in the place they were walking towards.

Theseus opened the door.  
“Gellert! Albus! Albus – you do not look well. Gellert, I thought you were taking care of him.”  
“Oh, I have been, Love. I believe that is the problem.”  
“Very funny, Gellert,” Albus muttered. 

Theseus reached out and drew Albus to him and nuzzled against his neck before letting him go. He took Albus by the hand and led him to the parlour, with Gellert following.

When they got to the parlour door, Theseus stepped aside and directed Gellert to enter.  
“We’ll be just a moment, Love,” Theseus said, and swatted Gellert’s arse as he walked by.  
“Don’t make me wait too long, handsome. I’m an impatient man.”  
Theseus rolled his eyes, then watched Gellert disappear into the parlour. But he left the door open, which Gellert took as an invitation to disillusion himself and pop right back into the hall again.

“Albus. What is it? Is everything ok?”  
“We – Thee, gods, I’m sorry, I – “  
“Albus Dumbledore, so help me, you had better not be getting ready to apologize for having sex with your husband just as I asked you to do. Was it good?”  
“Theseus!”

Theseus shoved Albus against the wall.  
“I have been apart from you for two and a half days now, and every time I come I am thinking about the two of you fucking, or about your cock in his mouth, or about you soaping him in the shower, or – gods, Albus, the thought of the two of you together! Snogging on the sofa and things escalating, not bothering to undress all the way…”  
Soon it was going to be too difficult not to make a noise – it had taken a great deal of restraint already. Gellert returned to the parlour to wait for the two of them. He listened to the filtered sounds of their snogging while he explored the room. 

When they returned to the parlour, Gellert was sitting at a chess board rolling a bishop between his fingers.  
“I was wondering how long I’d be waiting. If you were just going to play chess right there in the hallway.”  
Albus blushed. He sat in a wingchair by the fireplace. Coward.  
Theseus remained standing.  
“I know you think that this is all theoretical, Albus,” Theseus began, “but I heard the two of you. This morning. I came by the house briefly to check on you, and - I hope you never use silencing charms. I want to hear you every time. I want to hear Gellert call out your name.”  
Gellert laughed. “Sometimes you’ll be hearing him call my name.”  
“I doubt it. It’s hard to get word one out of the man when you’re fucking him.”  
“Actually –“ Albus started, but Gellert shook his head at him.

“Perhaps I need to give you lessons in how to make him noisy,” Gellert suggested.  
“I may be a slow learner. I may need to watch.”  
“Or I could demonstrate on you. If you like,” Gellert said.  
Albus looked from Gellert to Theseus.  
“Perhaps you two are the ones who need to go play chess in the hallway.”  
Theseus laughed. 

Gellert walked over to Albus, sat in his lap, and kissed him.  
“No, Love. Not yet. First you need to tell us that you believe that Theseus and I both want to live with you and with each other – that we will not be hurt – that we will even enjoy both being your husbands. You need to tell us, and we need to believe you."  
“Then we can discuss how you feel about Gellert and I playing chess in the hallway,” Theseus added.

///

After dinner, after drinks in the library, after leaving Theseus alone with Albus so that the two of them could reassure one another that their relationship was still solid, that Albus and Gellert hadn’t broken anything…  
After a very long evening, Gellert and Albus were finally alone together in the master suite.  
‘You weren’t planning to spend the night here when you came for dinner tonight,’ Theseus had said earlier. ‘I want you to have the night together that you were expecting.’ 

Once they were alone, and mostly undressed, and under the blanket together, Gellert dimmed the lights. Albus held Gellert quietly for a minute, perhaps two, before asking unsteadily, “Gellert? Will you – I’d like for you to come to Hogsmeade with us. To live with us. Please?”  
Gellert’s breath hitched. Theseus had told him not to expect it. And here –

“Of course,” Gellert answered, turning over to face Albus.  
“You are everything to me, Albus Dumbledore. Thank you for giving me another chance.”  
“Just don’t fuck it up, Gellert.”  
That hurt. As if Albus, just today, had not almost driven him away before they could get to this moment. Why did _Gellert_ need to be told not to fuck it up?  
He smiled as if Albus had said it out of playfulness, and not out of fear and exhaustion.  
“I won’t if you don’t.”

Albus didn’t answer. 

“We’re going to be fine. We’re grownups now – that should count for something.”  
He cupped Albus’ face in his hand. “Are you able to sleep now, Darling? Big day tomorrow, I suppose.”  
“No, first we need to – Gellert – you were right. We haven’t talked about Theseus enough. Are you angry at me? For falling in love with him? For marrying him?”  
Gellert dropped his hand and closed his eyes. Albus’ question was like a knife between the ribs. But it was a remembered pain.

“I was. For a long time, I was. It crushed me. But I’m not angry anymore, Love. I’m glad you had him. I’m glad _we_ have him. You made a good choice.”  
“That was what Theseus said about you, interestingly. That I made a good choice.”  
“Well. What can I say? You have excellent taste in men, clearly.”

Albus snorted.  
“Albus – I’m grateful to him. I’ll always be grateful to him. He took care of you when I couldn’t. He did his best to put together what was broken. He’s brilliant and strong and he loves you. He brought us back together, and I don’t think he is going to let us fall apart.”

“And you want to sleep with him.”  
“And I want to sleep with him. Unless sleeping with him is going to hurt you.”  
Keeping that promise was going to be Theseus’ job. Because Gellert honestly did not have the discipline not to fuck someone he wanted so badly when they were living in the same house – sleeping in the same bed, eventually, it sounded like.  
“But you should know that it is going to be insanely difficult to keep my hands off of him. Painful, even.”

“I – “  
“Albus – neither of us is ever going to leave you. We love you.”  
Gellert waited and watched Albus’ face. He was thinking entirely too hard about this.  
“Not – not in front of me – not when I’m in the room. Or at least not yet. I don’t think I can… But I don’t want to keep the two of you apart from one another. It’s clear that you belong together.”

“We all belong together, Albus.”  
Albus didn’t answer.  
“I will come to Hogsmeade with you and Theseus tomorrow. If you meant it.”  
“I wouldn’t have asked –“  
“Good.”

“Gellert? You love me?”  
“I just said I did.”  
“No, you said 'we love you.' You haven’t said –“  
Apparently ‘You are everything to me’ was inadequate.  
“I do, Albus. I love you. I have never stopped loving you. I will never, never stop loving you.”

The number of reassurances Albus required. How did Theseus do it? But perhaps he needed more reassurances from Gellert than he did from Theseus. Theseus had never left him. Gellert’s stomach turned. He hoped that one day Albus would trust him to stay.


	4. Theseus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is for Carapheonix, who requested a story about Gellert and Theseus having sex for the first time.  
> Originally there were going to be weeks of roadblocks, but Gellert wasn't having it.
> 
> Temporally, there is a little bit of overlap between this chapter and the one prior - there were things I needed to record from Theseus' perspective.  
> So - the first two sections of this chapter take place between the last and next to last sections of chapter 3.

**Chapter Four  
Theseus**

**Monday**  
Gellert finished his scotch and set down his tumbler. They had adjourned to the library after dinner. Theseus went to pour him another, but Gellert declined.  
“Any reason you drink Muggle liquor?”  
“Any reason you drink Muggle wine?”  
“It’s better.”  
“Same.”  
Gellert shrugged. “Must be an acquired taste.”  
Albus laughed. “It is not worth acquiring.”

Albus was drinking tea as he always did after dinner. Alcohol, he said, was for consuming with meals. Wine - or ale, depending upon what they were eating - enhanced the taste of the food. The only other time he drank was at parties, and then grudgingly.  
This was not a new quibble. Theseus decided not to rise to his bait.

“So, you didn’t like the vodka either?”  
“What’s to like about vodka? It doesn’t taste like anything. Though that makes it equally as difficult to _dis_ like.”  
“Perhaps if we were to –“

“No. Games. Theseus.”  
Theseus looked at Albus. He was right. This was not the night for it. Theseus had just been so bored, waiting alone in the house. 

“I’m sorry, Love. Tired?”  
“Yes, I imagine it’s time to get back to the cottage.”  
“About that… I… had the elves move your things here to the main house.”

Albus looked more anxious than he had since he and Gellert had arrived at the house. Theseus gestured to Gellert, and Gellert moved to sit next to Albus and put his arm around him.

“I know that the two of you were not expecting this, and it’s not my intention to take your last evening alone from you – I’ve set you up in the master suite for the evening, and I’ll stay in the guest room.”  
Gellert looked at Albus and then back to Theseus. He frowned.  
“Theseus,” Gellert scolded, “You really should have consulted us. You are not our father, to just make decisions for us.”  
Albus looked alarmed. “Gellert!”  
“No, he’s right, Albus. That was a fair criticism. I apologize. If you want, I can have your things moved back.”

Theseus hoped they stayed. He needed people, and he needed things to do, and he had had neither these past 48 hours. He was losing his mind.

Gellert turned to Albus. “What do you think, Love?” He asked quietly, squeezing his hand.  
“I suppose that depends on why – “ Albus looked up at Theseus. “Why were you wanting us to stay here instead?”  
“I missed you both,” Theseus confessed. “You especially, Albus – and I thought, since I had already heard the two of you together this morning, and since we are all moving back to Hogsmeade in the morning…”

“That hasn’t been established, Theseus.” Gellert sounded angry, but Theseus suspected that he was masking several other emotions. It seemed he and Albus hadn’t made any progress since that morning.  
“Albus?” Theseus asked.  
“Well, it would be nice to be home…”

Gellert stood and turned to face Albus. “That’s not the question, though, is it?” Gellert asked angrily. “The question is whether it would be nice to be home if I were living there with you!”  
Albus didn’t answer right away, and Gellert stalked to the door.  
“Let me know when you figure out what you want.” As he exited the library, Theseus could hear him muttering, “ _If_ you figure out what you want.”

Albus looked up at Theseus.  
"He's scared," he said, helplessly.  
Albus looked a little lost. Until a few days ago, Theseus had forgotten that he could look this way. He sighed and walked over to Albus. He knelt in front of him and took both of his hands.  
“I’ll go talk to him.”  
Then he kissed Albus.  
“I love you. So much. This is all going to be ok.”

Theseus stood. “Aggie?”  
A house elf popped into the library. She saw Albus’ distress and began to tug on one of her ears, but then quickly moved to clasp her hands behind her back. Theseus’ mother had demanded that they stop ‘injuring themselves.’ She seemed not to be aware that elves pulled on their ears when they were distressed because they found it comforting – not because they were punishing themselves.

“Albus, love? Aggie is going to take you up to the master suite and get you anything you need. I’ll be there in just a few minutes. Everything will be fine, I promise.”  
Albus nodded.

Theseus laid a hand on the elf’s shoulder. “Thank you, Aggie.”  
“Of course, Master Theseus, sir. Now – Master Albus –“  
She took Albus’ hand in her own and they were gone.

Theseus walked out the door and went looking for Gellert. He was standing just outside the front door, looking at the stars. Theseus cast a warming charm over him, and Gellert cancelled it immediately.  
“I like the cold, Theseus.”  
“Ah,” said Theseus. 

It seemed that Gellert preferred for Theseus not to do things for him without asking. Theseus didn’t like for people to do things for him without asking either, so that seemed reasonable. 

“May I - ?” Theseus reached for Gellert, and Gellert nodded. Theseus put his arm around Gellert, and they stood side by side, leaning against one another.  
“Albus loves you.”  
“I know. He told me. But that doesn’t mean – listen Theseus, he loved me before. And that wasn’t enough to make him want to change his life for me.”

Theseus had several thoughts about that, but he didn’t know that any of them would be helpful to Gellert right now.  
So instead, he simply asked, “Stay? Tonight, at least? I – I need to talk to Albus, but I’ll come get you when I’m done. You can help him fall asleep, and then come meet me downstairs?”  
“Where downstairs?”  
“Wherever you like.”

“What makes you think I won’t fall asleep first?”  
“No one falls asleep faster than Albus, when he’s being snuggled.”  
Gellert sighed. “You’re right. And I’ve not been falling asleep very easily lately.”  
Theseus thought that it was likely that by ‘lately’ Gellert meant ‘for the past fourteen years.’

“Alright,” Gellert conceded. “Go calm him down. I don’t have the energy for this right now.”  
“You don’t have to stay with him at all tonight, if you need –“  
“No, it’s important. It’s good to have a break, though.”

Theseus wanted to tell Gellert that he loved him, right then. He couldn’t deny it anymore. It made his chest tight to see him hurting, it made him feel light to see him happy, it excited him to match wits with him. And seeing him looking up at the stars like this…

Theseus came around in front of Gellert and kissed him. He couldn’t even lie to himself that he intended it to be brief or gentle. He poured all of his hunger for Gellert into the kiss. He wanted Gellert to stay, needed for him to stay. He couldn’t lose him so soon after discovering him. 

He broke away just long enough to say, “Please, I need –“  
Gellert answered, “Gods, Theseus, me too –“  
Then somehow they were on the cold ground, and Gellert was on top of him, and they were moving against one another… until Gellert pushed himself up and tugged at his hair.  
“We can’t – you need to go up to Albus. He’s probably losing his mind.”  
Gellert was right. Theseus couldn’t believe he’d forgotten – it was unlike him to neglect anything Albus might need. 

Gellert stood and reached down to give Theseus a hand up. Then without another word, he pulled out his wand and tidied Theseus’ appearance.  
He kissed Theseus softly, and when Theseus began to lose his focus again, Gellert gently pushed him away.  
“Soon, Love. We can – talk more – after he’s asleep.”  
Theseus nodded, and walked inside and up the stairs to meet his husband.

///

Albus was pacing when Theseus entered the master suite.  
“Chess?” he asked, not quite accusatorily.  
“Things have not quite escalated to that point, Albus.”  
Albus nodded, but did not move closer to Theseus. 

“Bed?” Theseus asked.  
“I don’t think I’m ready to have sex with two men in one day, yet. However comfortable you and Gellert might be with the idea.”

Theseus wanted to roll his eyes, wanted to remind Albus that he was the only one of the three of them married to two men, that he was the one who had suggested they all try living together, because he had wanted to have both of them at once. But he just stood there impassively.

“I didn’t say anything about sex, Albus. I was simply asking if you wanted to talk in bed so that we could be holding one another while we talk.”  
“Not right now.”  
“Alright,” said Theseus, taking off his shoes and laying on top of the blanket. “But I’m knackered, and I’m going to lay down for a minute.”

Albus looked at him for a moment, then resumed pacing.  
“I think – it doesn’t seem fair…” He looked up at Theseus. “I don’t want to kick you out of your bed, Theseus. And if we’re here, there’s no reason for you to be alone…”  
“There’s every reason, Albus. I’ve had you to myself for years. I’m not going to begrudge you and Gellert a third night alone together. I’ll be fine. It will make enough of a difference to know that I’m not alone in the house, and that I can see the two of you at breakfast and so on.”

“And you’re not going to be jealous?”  
“Albus. I’m not going to be jealous. I’m ready to take him home with us this instant. Are you ready? Because he thinks you aren’t. And I don’t want to lose him simply because you are needlessly worried that I’m not going to like sharing you. Do you think you want to try to make this work? Do you want to share our home with him?”  
“Do _you?_ Really?”

“I like him, Albus.” He wondered if telling Albus that he in fact _loved_ Gellert would distress or reassure him. Just two days ago, Albus had been worried that Theseus might leave him for Gellert – was that still troubling him? Or had he moved on from that particular fear? “He’s smart, he’s funny, and he loves you. He wants you to be happy. Why wouldn’t I be sure?”  
“Well, the sex –“  
“Yes, the sex. Is apparently amazing, if what I heard this morning is anything to go by. How many times am I going to have to tell you that I _like_ the thought of the two of you having sex? You need it – you both need it. I _expected_ you to sleep with one another.”

“But that was before –“  
“Yes, before I discovered that, in fact, I meant it – and furthermore, found the prospect of you having sex with him arousing.”  
“But what if you become jealous, and then –“  
“And then leave? Albus, I am not letting you go unless you tell me to. Never.”

Theseus got up out of bed and kissed Albus.  
“But right now, I am going to go get Gellert, so that the two of you can have a little bit more time, just the two of you, before we go home.”

As Theseus pulled away, Albus took his hand.  
“I meant it. You could stay the night with us.”  
Absolutely not. If Gellert’s hard cock touched any part of him, Theseus was going to lose control. And he didn’t want his first time with Gellert to be in bed with Albus, worrying about whether Albus was going to wake up, and trying to manage Albus’ feelings if he did. He wanted to get to feel only Gellert, to lose himself in him, as much as he could. To focus on him intently in the way that he had been desperate to do since that night in the pub, in the way that he had begun to do on the front lawn.

“Thanks, Love. Tomorrow night, maybe. But tonight, I’m going to go get Gellert and send him up here.”  
“I love you, Theseus.”  
“I know, Albus. I know you do.”

Theseus kissed Albus. It was a mystery how two men could kiss so differently and still be everything that Theseus wanted in the moment.

“I love you, Albus Dumbledore. Never doubt it. And if _anything_ you do is causing me pain, I promise I will tell you. I will whine about it mercilessly. You never need to worry that I am suffering in silence.”  
Albus laughed. After these years together, he had to know it was true, if he thought about it at all. 

“Fine, Theseus. You win. Go downstairs and fetch husband number two”  
“I think I’m husband number two, technically speaking.”  
“I think that if this is going to work, you are both going to need to be husband number one, somehow.”  
Theseus was relieved. Albus was finally sounding like Albus.  
He went to Albus and kissed him soundly. “I think you are absolutely right. I love you so much.”

Albus laid his hand on Theseus’ chest. “I love you, too. Thank you. I – it’s been hard. But I’m glad we – thank you for making this happen. For bringing Gellert back to me. To us.”  
Theseus had not been expecting to hear this so soon.  
“You mean that?”  
“I do.”

Thank all the gods. Theseus very much wanted to get back to having a peaceful, low drama home life. His job provided all the drama he needed.

“Tell him, please? That you’re glad he’s back?”  
“I have, I think.”  
“Maybe you have. Still –“  
“I will. I – I love him, too, Theseus. I love you, but I love him too. It’s been a little confusing.”

“I know, Albus. It’s ok. I love him, too.”  
Albus looked surprised – but not anxious. Thank Merlin.

“That seems soon.”  
“How quickly did _you_ fall in love with him?”  
Albus laughed. “Nearly instantly. He was sitting beside the creek on the outskirts of town, reading _Measure for Measure_ , and the sun was shining down on him. He turned and saw me, and said, ‘I don’t remember requesting company, but if you can manage to be interesting, I’ll allow it.’ As if he owned the creek and the woods and everything as far as the eye could see. And I was terrifically annoyed, because I always went to the creek to be alone, and here was this distractingly gorgeous but condescending interloper. So, I drew my wand and tossed his book up into a tree.”

“You didn’t!”  
“I did. And then he grinned and said, ‘Well. That was unexpected.’ It wasn’t until he introduced himself that I realized that I had never stopped to think that he might not be a Wizard.”

“You didn’t know he was a Wizard?! And you drew your wand on him?”  
“The Statute of Secrecy is moronic. But in any case, I could have obliviated him, I suppose.”  
Theseus shook his head, but he didn’t challenge it verbally. He was just glad to have Albus telling him about Gellert so freely, so unselfconsciously. 

“So, I sat down next to him,” Albus continued, “and he retrieved his play, and we began arguing about what constituted an abuse of power, and – that was all it took. When he started ranting about Wizardkind as a whole being delusional, I leaned in and kissed him. It surprised both of us, I think.”

Albus' story of their first kiss differed entirely from Gellert's. Interesting.  
“You kissed him, out in the open, within hours of meeting him, without knowing whether or not he was interested in men?”  
“It would have been hard to miss his interest.”  
Theseus laughed. He could imagine.

“Hmm. You chose well, Love.”  
“I’m not sure I had much of a choice.”  
“Well, you do now. Make it clear to him that you’re choosing him. Please? I think we can be happier, the three of us, than any pair of us could be. I didn’t understand how that could be true when you first suggested it, but now –“  
“I will. Send him up?”  
“I will.” Theseus gave Albus one more kiss. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

///

Gellert stuck his head in through the kitchen door.  
“I changed my mind. Library?”  
Theseus nodded, and followed him. 

Gellert collapsed on the sofa.  
“That man is exhausting. Tell me he is not always so exhausting.”  
“He is not always so exhausting.”  
Gellert sighed. “I know he’s not. He was fine until this morning, until I asked him about what life would look like in Hogsmeade, if it were all three of us together.”  
Theseus walked to the sofa and nudged Gellert’s shoulder with his knee.  
“Make a little room.”

Theseus sat and took Gellert’s head into his lap.  
“This is the worst I’ve seen him since I asked him to marry me. This is extraordinary. Things will get better. It’s part of why I want to get back to Hogsmeade right away. Perhaps if he’s in a familiar place, with all of his books and his violin and everything… perhaps if he can walk up to Hogwarts when he is needing something else to do and to think about… I think we could speed this whole process along.”

“At least he asked me to come, finally.”  
That was big news.  
“ _And_ he said that you and I belong together, and that it was ok for us to have sex as long as he wasn’t in the room.”

Theseus laughed, “Why would we want him in the room? The way he is right now?”  
Gellert rolled his eyes, “I suppose that would depend on whether you think it would ‘speed the process along.’”  
“Don’t be stupid,” Theseus said, rolling Gellert off of his lap, and following him onto the floor.

“What I want from you I want for me, not for Albus.”  
“Oh? I wasn’t aware that you wanted anything for yourself.”  
“Then you, Gellert Grindelwald, know nothing about me at all.”  
Gellert pushed Theseus over and got on top of him.

“I know that all of this has been for Albus.”  
“In the beginning, yes. But now… “  
“Now?”  
“Now I want you so badly, it takes all of my energy not to just fuck you the minute you walk in the room.”

He untucked Gellert’s shirt and worked his hands underneath. He wrapped his arms around Gellert, pulling him tightly against him. Theseus was becoming hard just at the feel of Gellert’s warm skin under his hands.  
Their mouths crashed together. Everything around them blurred out of existence. Theseus was dizzy with sensation. Gellert pulled away to breathe, and before he could press his mouth against Theseus’ again, Theseus spoke.

“Everything about you makes me crazy with desire. You are insane in all of the best ways, and if I can’t spend part of every day with you, then the disappointment will be overwhelming.”  
Gellert sat up and smirked at him. “I would hate to disappoint you, Love. I suppose I shall have to come with the two of you to Hogsmeade tomorrow.”

“Gellert! Really?”  
Gellert traced his fingers along the buttons of Theseus’ shirt. They unbuttoned, and Gellert exposed Theseus’ chest, laid a hand over Theseus’ heart.

“If you promise to say, ‘really’ less often, then yes.”  
“And what if I break my promise?”  
“Then the disappointment will be overwhelming.”  
Theseus laughed. “You hate the word ‘really’ that much?”  
“I really, _really_ do.”  
Gellert bent down to kiss Theseus, and Theseus disappeared Gellert’s shirt, so that he could feel Gellert’s skin against his own.

He claimed Gellert’s mouth again. He wanted to own it, just for the moment. He had kissed Gellert for the first time less than a week ago, and already going without him for a day and a half was too much to ask.

Gellert’s hands moved to his fly. Theseus broke the kiss and grabbed his hands.  
“Gellert. Not yet, Love.”  
Gellert groaned with disappointment.  
“You are no fun.”  
“I am lots of fun – you just don’t know how much. Yet.”

Gellert laid his hand on Theseus’ face.  
“But you meant it – you do want me?”  
Theseus moaned softly. “So much, Gellert. You have no idea.”  
“Then why -?”  
“You know why. I can’t have you at all, not the way I want you, if we don’t make this work for all of us.” 

Gellert sighed. “But Albus said –“  
“And I want to believe him, I do. But I can’t have my first time with you be in a place where he can hear us, where he can walk in on us.”  
'Where I am going to be worrying the whole time,' Theseus didn't say.

Gellert laid his hands on Theseus’ shoulders and pushed himself up and off of him, leaving Theseus lying on the floor. Theseus rolled onto his side and watched Gellert as he poured himself some ‘miserable Muggle whiskey.’  
“And when is that going to be?”

Theseus sat up.  
“I don’t know – Albus going back to work should make that easier, but – “  
“I’ll figure it out. In the meantime – you are asking too much of me to restrain myself when you’re pressed up against me, when I can feel how much you want me. I’m going to need to – stand over here for a few minutes.”

Theseus ran a hand through his hair. That was a fair request but…  
“You are nearly asking too much of me not to come over there and put my hands all over you, knowing how much you want it too. But fine. I understand.”

“Should I go out for a walk, then?” Gellert suggested. “I can’t go to sleep, wound up like this.”  
“Can I walk with you?”  
“Hand holding only.”  
“Agreed.”

///

 **Tuesday**  
The next day they returned to Hogsmeade with Gellert. Albus went up to Hogwarts to collect papers to grade and get back on track with his classes – and Theseus stayed behind to help Gellert unpack what little he had brought with him, and to make a list of what he would need to make himself at home. 

It didn’t take long. Gellert had taken to travelling light – everything that was important to him (books mostly) had been left in a vault – all he had with him were three books, one journal, several quills – and his clothes and shoes. 

“I can go with you to your vault if –“  
“I can’t go back there, Theseus. But, I wonder –“  
“Gringotts. The goblins can handle the transfer – “  
“For a reasonable fee” they said together.  
Gellert started laughing, “Fucking goblins. Merlin. But at least you know where you stand with them.”

“So – we go to London tomorrow? Gringotts, the apothecary, the bookstore…”  
“The tailor, also - can we make it an overnight trip?”  
“Gellert, I don’t know. Albus – “  
“Is not going to die if we leave him for one night. Besides. It might be good for him to see that if we run off together, we will come back for him.”

Theseus took a deep breath and then nodded.  
“Ok. Tomorrow. And tomorrow night… In that case - can I have him tonight? It’s been a while for us.”

“Oh? That’s a fine welcome!” Gellert said with one raised eyebrow. “You are going to have me stay alone in the guest room my first night here? And listen to you fuck my husband?”

“Well, I happen to know how to use a silencing charm. Unlike some Wizards.”  
Theseus had heard them again this morning – he had come listening to them, around the same time Gellert had. 

“I seem to remember a certain Wizard requesting that Albus and I forgo all silencing charms.”  
Theseus smiled. "And I am thinking that another Wizard was enjoying knowing that I was listening."

Gellert pushed Theseus onto the bed and began kissing him with a ferocity that was almost dangerous, given that Theseus had no idea when Albus would be back. He rolled them onto their sides and pushed himself a small distance away.  
"Perhaps you would like listening to me fuck your husband, too. Of course, I can’t guarantee we’ll have sex at all. We might just fall asleep like the old marrieds we are.”  
“I somehow doubt that. Not after the week we’ve all had. There’s some consoling to be done.”

Theseus took Gellert's hand in his own and kissed the tip of each finger.  
Consoling was right. Everyone’s moods were all over the place. All of Albus’ emotions were right out in the open, shifting rapidly and unpredictably, while Gellert was trying to edit himself heavily for Albus and not always succeeding. Theseus had been so busy worrying about and calming Albus' and Gellert's fears and resentments that he had still not begun to examine whether he had any of his own insecurities remaining.

Yes, hotel sex, a couple of hundred miles away from Albus – that was something they both needed. The wait had already been too long for Theseus. That first night, when he met Gellert in Muggle Manchester, it had taken all the restraint Theseus had had not to make Gellert come the moment he had him alone. Now that Albus knew how he and Gellert felt about one another, and he seemed to be mostly ok... now, there was nothing to stop them.

///

 **Wednesday**  
“Going clothes shopping with you is excruciating,” Theseus complained, as they climbed the stairs to their hotel room.  
“It is not! We were barely there two hours.”  
“This is what I mean! Two hours at the tailor’s constitutes a short trip for you?”

Gellert opened the door to their room, pushed Theseus inside, and kicked the door shut behind them.  
“Finally,” he growled before taking Theseus’ mouth in a bruising kiss.  
“I am going to make you forget everything except for the smell and feel and taste of me.”

He vanished Theseus’ jacket and waistcoat impatiently, and practically tore off his shirt.  
“Tonight,” he said, then interrupted himself to suck on Theseus’ shoulder. “Tonight, you are mine, and I am going to claim you entirely.”

Gellert tossed his robe onto a chair, and Theseus began to unbutton his jacket.  
“No,” said Gellert, stilling Theseus’ hands. “No, you first.”  
He pushed Theseus up against the wall and kissed him breathless.  
“I have wanted you too long.”

Gellert got on his knees and unbuttoned Theseus’ trousers.  
“Freya, Odin, and Thor,” he swore. “Do not think that I am going to swallow every last inch of this beautiful monster.”  
“Oh no?” Theseus asked, amused.  
“Not everyone finds gagging to be erotic, Theseus. However – “  
Gellert yanked Theseus’ trousers down to his ankles and returned his attention to Theseus’ cock.  
“That will not stop me from making you come so hard you can’t see.”

He licked from the base of Theseus’ cock to the tip, and then swirled his tongue around the head before sucking it into his mouth. He began to slowly descend further and further.  
Gellert held Theseus against the wall with one arm, took the base of Theseus’ cock in his hand, and began moving his hand and his mouth in concert with one another. 

But not for long. It seemed no time had elapsed at all before Gellert had removed his mouth from Theseus’ cock entirely and started sucking on his belly, with one hand on Theseus’ cock and another on his balls. Then his mouth was on Theseus’ balls and his finger was stroking from his hole to his balls, over and over. 

It began to seem as if Gellert was unable to settle on one strategy – grasping Theseus’ cock with his hand while licking his balls, or his arse… nipping at his inner thighs, licking his cock, sucking on it, licking and sucking at the same time… finally grasping his arse in both hands and pulling him deeper.  
“I thought you said…”  
Gellert removed his mouth just long enough to say, “Changed my mind,” before plunging his mouth all the way down to the base of Theseus’ cock again.

Theseus’ focus began to narrow to just his cock, just his balls, just Gellert’s mouth and hands, and before he lost all thought, he realized – Gellert wasn’t distractible, this was strategic. Everything he was doing was purposeful – he was edging the fuck out of Theseus, and shutting his brain down at the same time.  
Theseus didn’t know what to expect at all. Before he could settle into whatever Gellert was doing to his body, Gellert had moved on to something else. Theseus could anticipate nothing. He could only feel what was happening now, and now, and now. 

All there was was – “Yes! Fuck yes! Gellert!!!”  
“Oh no,” Gellert said, “Don’t you dare come yet.”  
He vanished Theseus’ trousers, socks and shoes, and with his magic, tossed Theseus onto the bed.  
“There are still parts of you that my mouth hasn’t visited yet. I am going to claim every last part of you before I let you come.”

Gellert crawled on top of him and began sucking on his chest, just south of his collarbone.  
“Going to mark me yours, are you?”  
Gellert removed his mouth from Theseus and growled.  
“Stop thinking, Theseus!”  
He bit Theseus on the neck, and none too lightly.  
Theseus moaned. 

Gellert licked the mark.  
“Was that alright, Love? I didn’t ask –“  
“Everything – perfect –“  
Gellert laughed wildly and began licking and sucking an everything he could reach, in a frenzy.  
“Clothes!” Theseus managed after a minute or two or who knew how long. “Clothes – off – Gellert! Need - ”

Gellert vanished all of his own clothing without remark and dragged his cock against Theseus’ as he continued his quest for untouched skin.  
Theseus moaned – and his moan turned into a scream. He couldn’t hold back any longer. Every part of him was on fire, and he was going to combust if he didn’t release. He felt his come splash hot onto his skin. As he was panting, he registered that Gellert was screaming too, shouting his name, and that was all Theseus knew before he fell into sleep.

He woke still sticky, Gellert lying pressed up tight against him.  
“Hmm. I didn’t know you did sex comas, Love.”  
Theseus hadn’t known he did – sex comas? – either. 

“Roll over? I didn’t get to your back before you came.”  
Theseus sleepily rolled over, and Gellert began dropping little kisses all over his back. It felt so good –  
“I – Gellert?”  
“Mmhmm?”  
“Feels nice.”

Gellert didn’t answer except to give him a lick before returning to kissing him.  
“But I – sleep now? You – keep going, though.”  
“You want me to kiss you to sleep?”  
Theseus could hear the smile in Gellert’s voice.  
He would have said, ‘I love you,’ but he was too tired to speak.

///

 **Thursday**  
Lying in bed the following morning, holding Gellert, Theseus kissed the back of his neck, then said quietly, “We are going to have to tell him. Why it is that you came to me instead of to him. I know he’s stopped asking, but that doesn’t mean he’s stopped thinking about it.”

Gellert turned around so that they were facing one another.  
“But you – he doesn’t know about all of your - .”

Theseus sighed. “He does now, actually. After that night in the pub - I could tell that you didn’t think very much of me not having told him, and it occurred to me that you were right. So, the next week I sat down with Albus and told him about _all_ of the people I have killed. Every one of them, each individual story. And he didn’t – he still loves me, Gellert. And he will still love you.”

“It’s not the same, though, Theseus. You’ve been with him for so long. And the things I was doing… the War that’s coming on the Continent – you’ll see it any day now. How many more people are going to die because of me?”  
“Gellert. I couldn’t tell you before, but - I know about the War – I’ve been tracking it – it’s obvious. And because I’ve been studying the problem, I can say with certainty that you can’t take credit for all of that. The Muggles have truly made a hash of things. Some of these problems were brewing before you were born.”

“Yes, but – ok, maybe they would have had a war anyway, but not so bad as it will be now that I’ve interfered. And if I had continued – who knows how bad it might have been? I had plans for how to keep it going for years – for how to spin any peace into more wars. To keep the Muggles killing one another – there could have been hundreds of thousands more casualties. I didn’t want to just thin their ranks, but to cause them to doubt themselves – to set in motion a war that would ebb and flow and only have the _illusion_ of ending. I had plans to destabilize every Muggle government in Europe and North Africa and the Levant. I was going to manipulate the Wizarding governments into participating…  
“Theseus, you might have gone to war if you hadn’t come for me that night. You and I might have met in battle, and I might have killed you.”

“Oh, now, Mr. ‘I have the Elder Wand,’ let’s not be hasty. I still might have been the one to kill you.”

Theseus smiled at him.  
“Anyway, that future is gone now. And you are dodging the conversation. The woman you killed…”

“I can’t, Theseus. How could he possibly understand?”  
“Albus is insanely protective. He will forgive anything you had to do to get yourself out safely. You could have set an entire village ablaze and his first question would be ‘are you ok?’ I was wrong to think that I shouldn’t tell him.”  
“But he hasn’t –“  
“No, he hasn’t killed anyone.“

Theseus paused. Unless… unless Albus had been the one to kill Ariana. Of the three boys involved, it couldn’t have been Gellert. That night in the pub, he had said that he had never killed anyone – and asking a rune-protected question had established that he was telling the truth… Was that why he had left? Had he not wanted Albus to know that it had been him? It did not seem the right time to bring that up, but he was going to have to, eventually. His and Albus’ relationship was not going to be stable until they had that conversation.

“Gellert, he’s stopped asking because we have dodged the question, so he is scared of the answer. He knows that you and I share a secret, and that makes him worry that we are going to become closer to one another than either of us are with him.”  
“That’s absurd!”  
“I know. And I could be wrong – maybe he isn’t thinking that at all. But either way, he is resenting not getting an answer. The ball is in your court, Love.”

“He’s not going to want to hear that at that point, I felt more comfortable talking with you. Simply being with you. Sharing a bed with you.”  
“Not if you put it like that. But if you tell him that you knew that I knew what it was to grieve having murdered –“  
“It wasn’t murder!“  
“It was. _Everyone_ thinks they have a justification. If having a 'good reason' were enough, then we could call nothing murder at all.”  
Gellert was quiet. 

“But that doesn’t mean I think you shouldn’t have done it. You were trapped. It was kill one person, or be trapped into killing many more. Or being killed yourself, I suppose, if you tried to get away with never killing anyone.”

“That might have been better. I don’t deserve –“  
“No,” Theseus said harshly, “You _do_ deserve. You do deserve to live and be happy. And Albus and I are going to love you until you believe it, and then we are going to keep loving you. You are _ours_ , Gellert Grindelwald, and – do you remember what you said to me? Why you told me you had come to me?”  
“I wanted to be someone different – someone I could only be if I came to the two of you –“

“Well, yes. But I was thinking about what you had said about why you had come to me instead of to Albus. After.”  
“… because you were the only person I knew who could make me feel like a person. After what I had done.”

“That’s why I want you to tell Albus – I want you to have one more person who knows everything and who loves you – who can make you feel like a person. You can’t be hiding it from him, Gellert – not least because that means you have to act as if even I don’t know about it.”

“Wait, no. Stop. You said it again. You said - what did you mean by ‘one _more_ person’?”  
“I meant that I –“  
“Don’t start saying things – don’t say anything that you don’t mean. I can’t -“  
Theseus ran his hand from the side of Gellert’s face, down his neck to his shoulder, and then trailed it down his chest. He pushed Gellert onto his back and climbed on top of him.

“I do mean it. I could have told you days ago, but I knew you wouldn’t believe me. I had hoped it wasn’t too soon yet – but I don’t want to wait for a ‘right time’ that may never come. I love you, Gellert Grindelwald.”

Gellert looked alarmed.  
“Surely not – the sex was – gods… but you can’t be more than – fond. Interested, maybe…”

“ _Maybe_ interested? Gellert - Albus is the only person I have ever met who - no one else _approaches_ being so fascinating as you. If I cannot have every single part of you, I am going to unleash a tantrum the likes of which you have never seen. I am yours every bit as much as I am Albus’, and I can’t even begin to be frightened by how strongly I feel about you, because I feel safe with you, which, given your criminal record, I absolutely should not do, but I don’t care about any of that, because I know you, and what I know about you can’t be contained in a folder. It can’t be contained at all.”  
“You mean it.”  
“Yes, I fucking mean it. I love you. I trust you. I need you.”

“I can’t –“  
Of course, Theseus felt a little disappointed, but he was not at all surprised. He had never meant to tell Gellert so soon, himself.  
“It’s ok, Gellert – I don’t need –“  
“Don’t you?”  
“I can wait, I mean. If I have the rest of you – your body, and your attention – if we continue to tease one another… that can be enough.”

“It’s not that I don’t – just – not yet?”  
Theseus bent down and kissed Gellert – gently at first, but then Gellert deepened it, until he was kissing Theseus almost desperately. He rolled Theseus over and rubbed their cocks together. Theseus gasped.  
“Gellert!”  
Gellert lightly bit Theseus’ shoulder.

“Tell me. Tell me again.”  
“I love you. Fuck! Gellert! I love you so much – all of you!”  
Gellert sucked on Theseus’ neck.  
“Need you. Right now.”

Theseus reached for Gellert’s hole and found it already lubricated, already stretched and ready for him. He had really meant it when he said, ‘right now.’ 

“Yes,” Theseus agreed, and Gellert positioned Theseus at his entrance and lowered himself down onto his cock.  
“Gods!” Gellert shouted. Theseus was grateful they had cast privacy charms the night before.  
Gellert rode him hard and fast. Theseus couldn’t form thoughts, much less words. He just moaned. 

“You are mine – say it Theseus.”  
“Yours, all yours – Gellert – “  
“Good,” Gellert answered. “It is my turn, then.”  
What?

Gellert slowly pulled off Theseus, and then bent down and began sucking on one of his nipples while gently twisting the other between his thumb and forefinger. He licked his way up to Theseus’ neck, and sucked on it. 

“Turn over.”  
“Gellert?”  
“Turn over for me. That virgin arse of yours –“  
“Oh gods.”  
“Yes?”  
“I –“

“No commitments to start – I’ll prepare you, and you see how you feel.”  
Gellert kissed Theseus, and Theseus reached up and tangled his hands in Gellert’s hair. He wanted Gellert so badly. He needed – he just needed. He consisted entirely of need in Gellert’s hands.  
“Yes. Yes, ok.”  
“Oh, you are going to be far better than 'ok' when I’m done with you.”

Gellert got off of Theseus, and Theseus rolled over. Gellert tucked one of their pillows underneath Theseus’ hips, and immediately took to licking Theseus’ arse. Gellert’s tongue felt so good, pressing against his hole. And then there was a jar of oil in Gellert’s hand – how had that gotten there? – and Theseus could feel a finger pressing at his entrance. 

“Still yes?”  
“Please –“ Theseus whined.  
He felt Gellert’s finger breach his hole. This was not an entirely new sensation, but Albus did it seldom. 

Before he knew it, Gellert was adding a second finger – this was new and – “ahhh!”  
“Still ok?”  
When Theseus didn’t answer, Gellert bit his arse.  
“Answer, Theseus – two fingers – good?”  
“So – gods, yes – so good!”

Gellert bit Theseus’ arse again, then nipped his way up Theseus’ back. He removed his finger and sucked the back of his neck.  
“That’s enough for today, Love.”  
“What? No – please –“  
“We need to build up to this – I want you to enjoy it every time – I want your arse to crave my cock so much that you come to me for it almost every day. I want you to not be able to live without it. I will wait.”

Theseus groaned, incredibly frustrated at this point. 

“You take me,” Gellert said. “Take me – come inside of me.”  
Gellert got up and off of Theseus and lay on his belly on the bed.  
“Like this?” Theseus asked sceptically.  
“Yes, like this. You can lick my back in this position. For instance.”

Gellert was still stretched from before. He floated the lube to Theseus, and Theseus applied it liberally to his cock and Gellert’s hole.  
Theseus slowly sank into Gellert, until he was pressed up against Gellert’s arse. So perfect.  
“Gellert,” he sighed, “You are –“

Theseus began moving.  
“I love you. I love you.”  
“I’m yours, Love. Take me, take me hard. Take me like you mean it.”

Theseus slammed into Gellert, over and over, and the room was filled with shouts of ‘yes!’ and ‘like that!’ various inarticulate words that sounded neither English nor German.

At last, Gellert roared like he was rushing into battle – and the sound of it made Theseus come with him, before he could even register Gellert tightening around his cock.  
He withdrew and laid down on top of Gellert catching his breath. 

“Fuck. That was –“  
“Shh –“ Gellert said. “No talking. Just – here, let me roll back over.”  
Theseus rolled off of Gellert, and Gellert lay on top of Theseus and began kissing him languidly. 

“You were right. It’s not too soon.”  
Was he saying - ?”

“I need you too. I love you too.”  
Gellert kissed Theseus on the cheek, then rolled off him, and kissed him on the shoulder.  
Theseus rolled back onto his side, facing Gellert.  
“You –“

“Hush. Don’t question it. Accept it. I love you. Back to sleep?”  
“Absolutely not! I’m starved.”  
“Fucking Muggle hotel. We are going to have to go down to the restaurant, aren’t we?”  
“No, there’s a bell pull right here – someone will come up, and I can order some food for us.”

“I’d forgotten about human servants. Human servants! There are too many Muggles, if they can waste their labour in this way.”  
Theseus was not sure that he agreed entirely, but he was not interested in getting into politics.  
“The important thing is that we can order food to be brought up to the room, so you don’t have to put on clothing at all.” 

Gellert pulled Theseus to him and kissed him.  
“I am never going to stop needing you,” Gellert whispered to him, after pulling away to look at Theseus.  
Theseus searched Gellert’s face. He truly believed that. 

“How about Albus?”  
“Gods. What do you think are the chances we can do this all together?”  
Theseus thought about it.  
“75%? If we don’t pressure him, I think we could have sex, all three of us together, in under two months.”

“That was rhetorical, Theseus.”  
“Not to me, it wasn’t. Do you want it? Want him and me at the same time?”  
Gellert hummed noncommittally.  
“Oh no, don’t be like that. You brought it up.”

“Of course, I want you both at the same time. Can you imagine it?”  
Theseus imagined it often, in fact.  
“Having you each separately is more than enough for me for now. But yes – I think with careful planning…”

“You and your planning! No – it just happens naturally or it doesn’t.  
“You would not be here if it were not for me and my planning!”  
“Hmm – and yet, the sex itself managed to be completely unchoreographed.”  
Of course it had. Theseus knew very well that planning was not always required. But he was also aware that, without some planning, he and Gellert would have returned home last night, and would not have had sex at all, choreographed or no.

///

Gellert sat next to his valise on the bed. He did not look inclined to go back home just yet. 

“There’s nothing left to do, Love. We picked up the items from the bank, we went out to breakfast, I took you on a walking tour of Muggle London.”  
“Magical Law Enforcement?”  
“I still need to smooth the way for you there. You’d rather be grilled by unfriendly interrogators than go home?”  
Gellert rolled his eyes. 

“Albus will surprise you, I think. He is a bit – morally flexible.”  
“He’s always been ‘morally flexible.’ You are going to need to be more specific.”

“You know what he said to me when I was telling him about the people I killed? He didn’t understand why I hadn’t killed more. He didn’t say it as a thought exercise to get me to feel remorseful. He legitimately thought that I had been too sparing in my killing. After a minute, he realized what he was doing, and he apologized.  
“He’s not going to judge you. He won’t. He and I - we were never afraid that you would be morally irretrievable – your heart was always going to be in our reach. Our fear was that a day would come when there would be no way realistically for us to live together, without one or more of us being killed by someone else. Some government, most likely. Your soul didn’t need saving. Only your life.”

“Only my life.”

“Yours is a life worth saving, Gellert.”  
“I’m not sure that’s a popular opinion.”  
“One day, all Britain will think so. In the meantime, trust Albus and I enough to let us love you?”  
“I’m not sure I can trust Albus.”  
“Well, then this is never going to work.”

Theseus took Gellert by the hand and pulled him up off the bed directly into an embrace.  
“I love you. Please don’t make me let you go. Try trusting Albus with this one thing?”  
Gellert held Theseus more tightly, and then stepped away and nodded. He picked up his valise.  
“Let’s go home.”


End file.
